California Gov. Gavin Newsom Wants Gun Control Law Modeled On Texas’ Vigilante-Enforced Abortion Bill

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend announced his plan to craft an assault weapons ban in his state modeled off of Texas’s Senate Bill 8, a near-total abortion ban that deputizes private citizens to stalk and sue anyone who “aids or abets” the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which the United States Supreme Court declined to block last week.

“SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?! If that’s the precedent then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets. If TX can ban abortion and endanger lives, CA can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives,” Newsom tweeted along with a blistering condemnation of the High Court’s ruling late Saturday evening.

“I am outraged by yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’s scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade. But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said.

“I have directed my staff to work with the Legislature and the Attorney General on a bill that would create a right of action allowing private citizens to seek injunctive relief, and statutory damages of at least $10,000 per violation plus costs and attorney’s fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the State of California,” Newsom added. “If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that.”