SACRAMENTO – On a Saturday night in December, California Governor Gavin Newsom was so frustrated by a Supreme Court decision allowing Texas residents to sue abortion providers that he took to social media to ask legislation that would allow private citizens to enforce the weapon of their own state. laws
It seemed so crazy that many Californians wondered if he was just trying to get a raise from one of his favorite foils, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas. Others doubted it was serious because it would have meant adopting a bounty enforcement system they considered legally dubious.
Seven months later, Mr. Not only is Newsom poised to sign the bill on Friday, but he’s leaned harder than ever in his rhetoric against Republicans. This month he ran an ad in Florida attacking the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential contender. He has rebuked other states for banning abortion and blasted the Supreme Court for its recent decisions overruling Roe v. Wade and give Americans a broad right to bear arms in public.
Although he has repeatedly insisted that he has no intention of running for the White House in 2024, Mr. Newsom’s actions sometimes seem to belie his statements. The Florida ad, a $105,000 ad worth more in free advertising, turned heads in national political circles. So did his visit to Washington this month and his remarks this spring that fellow Democrats were responding too meekly to Republican moves.
“I think he realizes that Democrats are hungry for a hero,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento. “He’s building a profile as a left-leaning alternative to this aggressive politics that we’ve seen from Republicans in recent years.”
No law better encapsulates the fight-fire-with-fire attitude of Mr. Newsom that the bill co-opts an anti-abortion tactic from Texas to enforce California’s bans on assault weapons and phantom weapons.
It aims to bury those who deal with prohibited weapons in litigation. Awards of at least $10,000 per weapon and legal fees will be offered to plaintiffs who successfully sue anyone who imports, distributes, manufactures or sells assault weapons, .50 caliber rifles, weapons without serial numbers or parts that can use. to build firearms that are prohibited in California.
“No one is saying you can’t have a gun,” said state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a veteran San Fernando Valley Democrat who was tapped by the governor to craft and lead the complex legislation. “We’re just saying there’s no constitutional right to an AR-15, a .50 caliber machine gun, or a phantom pistol with the serial number on file.”
Friday, Mr. Newsom ran ads in three Texas newspapers criticizing Gov. Abbott, spending $30,000, according to campaign spokesman Nathan Click. The full-page spread replaces the word “abortion” with “gun violence” in a quote from Abbott about the Texas abortion law. He also calls the gun enforcement legislation “California’s answer to the perverse Texas bill that put bounties on doctors and patients.”
“Governor Newsom should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas,” said Renae Eze, press secretary for Mr. Abbott, in a statement.
The California bill is the cornerstone of a broad package of gun restrictions that Mr. Newsom signed on this month. The new laws include new limits on the advertising of firearms to minors; stepped-up restrictions on unregistered “ghost guns”; and a 10-year ban on firearms possession for those convicted of child abuse or elder abuse.
“It’s time for us to stand up,” said Mr. Newsom in late June after the court struck down a New York law, similar to California’s, that strictly limited “public transportation” permits. He said at the time that California had anticipated the ruling and was revising state law in ways that would offset “this radicalized, politicized Supreme Court.” He had 16 gun tickets headed to his desk, he said, and planned to sign them all.
California’s laws come as mass shootings have intensified pressure for action against gun violence, as the death toll has risen this year from Buffalo to Uvalde, Texas. Last month, President Biden signed the most important gun violence legislation to pass Congress in nearly three decades, expanding the background check system for gun buyers under the age of 21 and setting aside millions of dollars for the states enact “red flag” laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous.
But the congressional response, constrained by a powerful gun lobby and deep partisan polarization, has fallen far short of the comprehensive solutions many gun violence researchers see as necessary. And the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has indicated an inclination not only to preserve, but also to further expand gun rights.
That has left Democratic-led states scrambling for their own solutions. The search has extended beyond gun violence policies as the court’s rulings have upended reproductive rights and put LGBTQ protections and other civil liberties at risk. Increasingly, the charge on the left has been led by Mr. Newsom, who has political capital to spare since last year, when he crushed a Republican-led retreat.
Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist who now teaches political science at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, said the governor’s motives were easy to deduce: Mr. Newsom believes his “California way” is a success, and using a national platform to call out Republicans helps rally voters in the many media markets of his vast state.
In addition, Mr. Schnur said, “He’s running for president.”
Mr. Newsom has said he has “less than zero interest” in the White House. “But just being seen as a player on the national stage does him good, even if he never runs,” Mr. Schnur. “Mario Cuomo played this game for years.”
California’s gun laws are among the strictest in America, helping the state deliver one of the lowest rates of gun deaths in the nation. In 2020, the state’s firearm death rate was about 40 percent lower than the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the California Public Policy Institute has determined that Californians are 25 percent less likely to die in mass. shootings, compared to residents of other states.
California’s gun policies, however, have been strained as conservative federal judges, many appointed by the Trump administration, have taken an increasingly hard line on Second Amendment rights.
California’s gun bounty law is expected to face legal challenges that could eventually reach the Supreme Court. The measure doesn’t take effect until next year and includes a legal trigger that will automatically invalidate it if courts overturn its Texas foundations. The National Rifle Association and other gun advocates have argued that current state law already provides remedies for the illegal activities of firearms manufacturers and dealers in California.
The same groups have argued from the start that the measure’s bounty scheme could — and would — restrict the Second Amendment, and the American Civil Liberties Union echoed their concerns.
“The problem with this bill is the same as the Texas anti-abortion law it mimics: It creates an end around the courts’ essential function of ensuring that constitutional rights are protected,” the ACLU said in a letter opposing the California legislation. . The group also charged that the legislation would “escalate an ‘arms race'” in creative legal attacks on politically sensitive issues, including contraception, gender-affirming care and voting rights.
A recent legislative update from the NRA said that on this and several other gun bills, they were “looking at all available options, including litigation.”
In the meantime, Hertzberg said, Democrats will use every tool at their disposal.
“I disagree with the Supreme Court,” he said, “but if Texas is going to use this legal framework to hurt women, then California is going to use it to save lives by taking illegal guns off the streets.”