Why is California taking a page from Texas’ playbook to crack down on guns?
This all goes back to Texas’ controversial abortion law. A lot of the legal wrangling around SB8 has focused on the unusual way it handles enforcement.
The Texas law allows private citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion done after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks. Because it relies on private citizens for enforcement, not the state, it exists in a legal grey area that makes it hard to challenge in court.
Last week, the Supreme Court allowed SB8 to stand while legal challenges continue. At the time Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that other states could use the same tactic to target other constitutional rights. And it looks like the governor of California was listening.
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Governor Newsom has proposed a bill that would let citizens sue anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or kits to make ghost guns in California.
There is a good chance a bill like this would pass in California. Right now Democrats have a supermajority in both chambers. Even if it is challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, it provides more ammo to critics of the Texas law that point out SB8 could be a slippery slope.