New California bill inspired by Texas abortion law would encourage private citizens to enforce state ban on assault weapons

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new gun control bill during a press conference Friday. The bill mimics the format of Texas’ controversial abortion ban, which is enforced by private citizens.

The proposed bill, AB 1594, encourages California residents to pursue gunsmiths, dealers of ghost guns and illegal assault weapons through civil lawsuits.

Newsom compared it to a similar bill in Texas which prohibits abortion after six weeks and replaces citizens by allowing them to sue abortion providers who perform abortions after six weeks.

“It’s time to go on the offensive with new measures that empower individuals to hold irresponsible and negligent actors in the gun industry to account, crack down on shameful ads that target our children, and more. This isn’t about attacking law-abiding gun owners — this is about stopping the tragic violence ravaging communities across the country,” Newsom said. noted.

Newsom, a vocal critic of the Texas abortion ban, argued that if the Supreme Court upheld the Texas law, then the one proposed by California should also be upheld.

“But they opened the door. They set the tone, the tenor, the rules. And either we can be on the defense complaining about it or we can play by those rules. We’re going to play by those rules,” he said. said the governor. .

“We will see how principled the Supreme Court of the United States is,” he added.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, an organization focused on the “right to bear arms”, published a declaration about the proposal: “The policies proposed by Newsom are nothing but modern Jim Crow laws designed to suppress the exercise of human rights, increase encounters with law enforcement and incarcerate for non-violent crimes the people the tyrants who run California don’t like.”

“In a just world, a woman’s right to choose would be sacrosanct, and the people of California would be protected from phantom guns and assault weapons. Unfortunately, a Supreme Court ruling has overturned common sense,” said Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg. in one Press release. “With this bill, we are taking advantage of the Court’s flawed logic to protect all Californians and save lives.”

However, experts expressed concern about these kinds of bills that can be used to circumvent the Constitution to Insider’s Kelsey Vlamis, saying that laws that allow citizens to enforce state laws would ultimately lead to “a state of vigilance of vigilance”.

“It’s one thing for the state to tell you to behave, it’s another for your neighbor to tell you,” said Jon D. Michaels, a law professor at the University of California at LA, to Insider.