California’s new law allowing state authorities and victims of crimes to bring lawsuits against firearm retailers and manufacturers is flawed in ways that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom never considered. Among them might be the state’s admission that their own background check system cannot be trusted and California’s Department of Justice is failing its citizens.
The law, AB-1594, recently signed by Gov. Newsom, requires firearm manufacturers and retailers to block the sale of a gun when there is “reasonable cause to believe it is at substantial risk” of it being used illegally or harm the owner or others, according to an Associated Press report.
This is a glaring admission that the California Department of Justice’s instant background checks – and the mandatory 10-day waiting periods – aren’t trustworthy and the state is foisting the responsibility of potential future criminal activity on private business instead of fixing the background check system. California is a point-of-contact state that relies on state authorities to run firearm background checks instead of the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Fundamentally Flawed
The law is problematic from the beginning. It attempts to burden firearm manufacturers and retailers for claims of damages caused by remote third parties when they criminally misuse a firearm. California’s law turns any basic understanding of tort law on its head.
Professor Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, once described these public nuisance lawsuits against gun manufacturers over the criminal misuse of a firearm as “absurd.”
“Product liability and tort actions against manufacturers have uniformly and correctly been rejected by the courts,” Turley wrote in an op-ed published in The Hill. “Guns are lawful products, and holding companies liable for later misuse of such products is absurd. You might as well sue an axe manufacturer for the Lizzy Borden murders.”
That’s also why California’s new law allowing these lawsuits also has a steep climb of overcoming the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which codified basic tort law.
Laq Professor Victor Schwartz, who literally wrote the textbook on tort law, a former law professor and law school dean and the current co-chairman of the Public Policy Group of the law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon, explained the PLCAA. He wrote, “The PLCAA remains a commonsense law that protects against unsound attempts to change radically a fundamental liability law principle.”
Scorched Earth
Now, California’s progressive anti-gun governor, attorney general and legislature are going to have to clear that legal hurdle with the weight of the admission that the state’s own background check system is worthless. If the state’s background check system were working properly, there would be no need to put the responsibility on firearm retailers and manufacturers to know if an individual could potentially commit a crime. That’s why they run background checks with the state to find out of they’ve been prohibited in the past from possessing a firearm.
Of course, what this law is actually intended to do is run firearm manufacturers and retailers out of business, even if it means burning down their own law enforcement institutions to do it. They’ll do it through “death by a thousand cuts” made infamous by disgraced Democratic former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he was Housing and Urban Development Secretary in the Clinton administration.
The other way is through sheer intimidation that the state government would send them down the river of lawsuit-after-lawsuit over bogus allegations. Sadly, in California this now includes a firearm retailer’s inability to predict the potential criminal activity of their customers.
Gov. Newsom doesn’t concern himself with the actual criminals in his constitutionally-questionable public nuisance law. He doesn’t seem to care that law indicts the state’s own Justice Department as failing in their job to run an effective background check system.
Gov. Newsom would hold firearm industry members accountable instead of rogue district attorneys to turn criminals back onto the streets. If the state’s background check system isn’t stopping criminals, he should use the state’s resources to fix it. This law isn’t intended to address any of that.
Gov. Newsom only wants this law to harass a constitutionally-protected industry for his anti-gun political agenda. The fact that he’s disparaging his own Justice Department to achieve it is revealing.
Mark Oliva is Director, Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Use that same law to file suits against the district attorneys who free violent offenders, repeatedly. That is most definitely a public nuisance.
“…the state is foisting the responsibility of potential future criminal activity on private business instead of fixing the background check system.”
There is no way to “fix” an unconstitutional system that assumes guilt and requires you to prove your innocence. The only way to “fix” NICS is to abolish it completely.
Add:
Why, oh why, are Newsom, Bonta, and California in general so determined to be in the news all the time now? Just stop, Newsom. Leave us alone and let us live our lives in peace…
Newsome is readying his 2024 campaign for the Democrat nomination for President. Why do you think he’s attacking Ron DeSantis? He sees him as a potential opponent. He will continue to push these idiotic attempts to circumvent SCOTUS in order to get free publicity.
RE: Chris T in KY
July 17, 2022 At 11:40
“In the gun community we say, “you are on your own”. “It’s up to you”. “No one is coming to save you”. This has always applied to the individual. But it really applies to an entire state.
You are on your own California. It’s up to you to change your state. No Outsider is coming to save you from yourself. No Outsider is coming to force you to change. There will be no American president who will send federal troops to enforce a court order, in the state of California. Those days are long gone.
I believe California is one of 6 states that has no second amendment in its state constitution. This will only change when there is a cultural change in the state of California. It took about four hundred years for the former slave states to go from racist gun control to constitutional carry for everyone.
So I think the California residents need to get started. Because it’s going to take a very long time before the state of California has the second amendment in it’s state constitution. Let alone have constitutional carry like many of the former Confederate States of America have right now.
You have several centuries of work to do. I suggest you get started trying to improve the dismal State of Liberty, in the no longer Golden State of California.”
Well said.
“He will continue to push these idiotic attempts to circumvent SCOTUS in order to get free publicity.”
That’s all it is. It’s a win win situation for him. If it gets tossed out in court (eventually after much time and money,) then he’ll promise to reform the “corrupt” courts, as he signs more absurd bills. He wants to be the gun control and abortion candidate.
@Debbie,
California’s own State Constitution’s Article 3 Section1 consists of a single sentence that very clearly (and I say this to Newsom and the Marxists occupying Sacramento) states we’re to follow the USC:
“The State of California is an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.”
It’s true that CA doesn’t specifically have its own 2A-style provision, but it’s otherwise covered via the statement above.
Or at least, any child could read it and know that’s the way it should be. The Marxists have twisted it into irrelevance.
To Debbie
Thank you very much pretty lady. I appreciate the compliment.
To I Haz a question
There are several California police officers and sheriff’s deputies, with their own YouTube channels, or podcasts. They say that California does not have a second amendment in the state constitution.
TTAG has already covered this issue. A few years ago video tape appeared of a California gun owner being arrested. His defense was that the constitution protected his second amendment rights. The responding police officer stated California does not have a second amendment in its Constitution.
In other words the state is telling you to read the fine print.
@Chris,
I know of the video you refer to. I remind you that an individual police office is not the law. LEOs make erroneous assumptions, statements, arrest, and even OICs all the time. In fact, former Governor Jerry Brown stated that his 2012 decision to remove our open carry provision (in place since our founding in 1850) was due to an abundance of LEOs making poor assumptions and risking the lives of law-abiding people lawfully open carrying.
to I haz a question
Of course you are correct. Individual police officers do not make law. Unfortunately the founders of the State of California did not follow in the footsteps, of the founders of the United States. Who concluded that in order to protect the rights of future citizens. It would be best to have a delineating Bill of Rights. In this way even if there were cultural changes in the United States. Our basic human rights would be written down forever. There would be no guesswork about it.
As far as I know not a single California judge has acknowledged California having a second amendment in the States Constitution.
I say let all the criminals out of prison…..
I carry constantly……nuff said…. so you don’t need to “moderate” this comment…. but I’m pretty sure the modjulator will….
What if a firearm manufacturer, retailer, etc. cannot not afford a lawyer? Will the state of ca appoint one for them? Asking for a friend.
You must complete form ca.us.1369 (aka: unlucky co-ksuckers lament) it’s 1127 pages and requires substantiating documents and a note from your parent or legal guardian. The trial will be expedited within 60 days of notice to prosecute but the wait for a PD is in excess of 6 months…
And so it begins, the easily predicted efforts by California, New York, et al to put roadblocks in the way of any effective implementation of the SCOTUS Bruen ruling.
The Dems are fully aware of the fact that there is nothing so difficult to remove as a government program already put in place. This is why Congress and the anti-gun State legislatures are pumping out laws that harass pro 2A citizens to death. The legal battle to get these obviously unconstitutional laws through the courts and appeals and to the attention of the SCOTUS will be long, hard and expensive for anyone who runs afoul of them.
And then those legislatures will pass another similar and make the citizens run that gauntlet as well.
I think we should sue gauntlet manufacturers and distributers for the misuse of their products.
Its a ridiculous law that will be struck down by the courts.
But, in order to work Universal Background checks must be made a Federal Law otherwise second hand guns will continue to come into California from states that have lax gun laws.
By “lax”, you mean properly constitutional and unhindered.
FIFY
“…lax gun laws”..
‘lax’ is another word for FREEDOM.
Leftist/Progressives/Democrats see a couple of defenseless robed/raped/dead people and that’s ok! Victims are ok!….But if someone defends themselves it’s all “Oh hell no!, that’s the job of the police”.
What kind of insane thought process is it when California wants to blame someone else (LGS) for a crime the person has not committed yet? Put the blame where it belongs.
darcydodo…Background checks and the black market go hand in hand. Your Enhanced background check stupidity will only produce a larger black market. Works like illegal pot and the black market. Making pot legal makes the black market shrink and disappear. Unfortunately pot also makes stupid people like you even more stupid. If people like you were smart they would just say No.
Why do you bother?
I would also like to add, that in order for the federal law to work, in order to stop the flow of second hand guns from people that think guns aren’t inherently bad, we also need to close the border, because guns could flow from them. Instead of “La Cocaína” alone flowing from central America, there could be completed AR15 receivers flowing from central America, and you all know how much I hate guns that aren’t $5000 precision single shot 22s, and love overbearing government regulations because I like people telling me what to do and how to live my life. Lastly, California people are really important. So to cater to their perceived needs, the rest of the US needs California style regulations passed over all of them.
Fake dacian you fool no one with your childish rant.
We know he’s a fake Duh Mass Dacian. You’re way too stupid to want to close the wide open border. You’re happy with 100,000 deaths of 18 to 45 year olds a year from fentanyl. After all at least they didn’t die from a gunshot wound. You idiot.
He sounded just like the honest version of the real you. LOL
This is arbitrarily vague to push the blame on the firearm retailers. Dictator Newsom can then push the blame to the retailer who sold the gun and further demonize the gun industry. Pretty genius way to add another link to the chains around the people of California.
What Newsom doesn’t understand though, is that the firearm retailers have a duty to keep firearms away from deranged people regardless of background check. Don’t believe me? Just try it! Walk into your local gu n store and act weird, start talking about the people who “wronged you”. Talk about your ex girlfriends new man and how much you’d like to “get him”. Talk to yourself and act like the typical Californian homeless. Do all of these things and watch how the gu n store clerk will keep the gu n your looking to buy stays in the glass case.
I’ve seen it happen 1st hand, 2 people walked into a gu n store. 1 of them wanted to see some pistol, but probably couldn’t buy it due to his age. Then the other 1 wanted to buy the pistol. The retailer wouldn’t sell it because of the possibility of it being a straw purchase.
I wonder if we could this a basis to sue the DNC. They are promoting candidates that are likely to violate a person’s civil rights which is a federal offense even of the DOJ ignores it. While the elected officials have almost absolute immunity i highly doubt that a private business like the DNC would. Unless of course the courts decide that the law doesn’t matter when political considerations are at stake.
The DNC was behind the Russia Hoax. Remind me again what the repercussions were? Oh yeah, a $113k fine. That was the best money ever spent by the DNC. I’m sure they learned their lesson.
What these bastards at the DNC did to divide Americans is unconscionable. The Russians could only dream of a better covert operation. They learned from it allright so much so I’m sure they are working to perfect it as we type.
Seems way past time to stop selling firearms and ammunition in California. To protect our 2A rights as US citizens, codify a suspended Constitutional state inside CA borders (a status already in effect, just make it official). Suspend firearm and ammunition deliveries to every law enforcement agency — local, state, and federal. Do not deliver arms or ammunition to any military (including the CA NG and all federal installations). Regardless of owner status, confiscate and destroy all firearms within CA borders. All actions to be personally accomplished by unarmed state bureaucrats. I know, it’s a pipe dream; but CA is a cancerous growth on our Constitutional Republic and should be treated as such.
The Firearm/ammo manufacturers have failed to stand up and fight back against states like this. If a handful of them jointly boycott selling gun/ammo to the state govt’s you’d see some change. No Guns/ammo to any LEO’s, no Agency sales whatsoever. You’d think they’d wake up?
It could easily reach a point where manufacturers no longer have a choice in the matter. Every LEO in California along with every agent of every office need to come to the realization that the weapons they have access to just might dry up. When combined with a sense of “defund the police”, they might end up becoming public enemy number one with no ability to defend themselves at all.
Don’t just confiscate their arms n ammo, take it a step further. Take all of the vehicles away, cuz drunk drivers abuse that product so no one can have them. Turn off the water supply, too damn many victims of that super hazardous compound. Mask them up full time in respirators – that Cali air is a known carcinogen. Maybe get a full time team investigation going for constitutional insurrection Jan. 6th style – make sure to be totally one -sided and not allow questioning by the accused. Anything else anyone can think up?
Or maybe, just maybe, adopt their fuckitall attitude and ignore THEIR shit, up to and including the inevitable.
From the looks of things California’s water supply is about to be shut off
God appears to have already done that.
Should we tell them that global warming increases rainfall?
In the gun community we say, “you are on your own”. “It’s up to you”. “No one is coming to save you”. This has always applied to the individual. But it really applies to an entire state.
You are on your own California. It’s up to you to change your state. No Outsider is coming to save you from yourself. No Outsider is coming to force you to change. There will be no American president who will send federal troops to enforce a court order, in the state of California. Those days are long gone.
I believe California is one of 6 states that has no second amendment in it’s state constitution. This will only change when there is a cultural change in the state of California. It took about four hundred years for the former slave states to go from racist gun control to constitutional carry for everyone.
So I think the California residents need to get started. Because it’s going to take a very long time before the state of California has the second amendment in it’s state constitution. Let alone have constitutional carry like many of the former Confederate States of America have right now.
You have several centuries of work to do. I suggest you get started trying to improve the dismal State of Liberty, in the no longer Golden State of California.
All they will do is drive out of the state all those people and companies they truly need to have there. California is no longer a viable place for anyone but criminals (who will still have guns). New York isn’t any better.
We are (finally) seeing the enemy bared for what IT is. We have
bit back at the countless misleading mouthfarts that have been
launched against us. We should instead be responding to the evil
sources of what in actuality is malicious gossip. Arguing with a
True Believer is a waste of time. Publicly speaking Truth to a
corrupt Power isn’t.
Words have meaning, and lies have great power. Not See Fornia
is to me a huge field of young receptive Citizens whose brains are
composed of Agar-Agar. Ready for any virulent germ or microbe
spewed from the mouth of any political hack or actress who is the
current inhabitant of center stage. That spittle grows to False Fact
Knowledge, then Action. If you also live here, feel free to
argue with me on this…
Diseducation in California is like from a fire hose. It’s like swatting
bees. It’s the death of a thousand cuts because of the great many of
the citizens are SO MOVED and enraged by the Spewer that they
jump at the chance to be his army. Gabby Nude Some, Algore, Hirally
and Merrikk Garland aren’t slashing tires. Good Little Soldiers are.
They just spew the seeds.
I’d appreciate a lesson on how to fight gossip that I never see, never
hear, but winds up as a knife in my back . I’m stumped.
Criminals dont go to gunm shops to buy gunms.
California is getting ready for its return to Mexico.
Disarm the sheep and get cozy with the Cartels.
Newsome is as clueless and naive as it gets.
That might not be that bad a deal.
for example, spend your money on writing assistance. It’s also one of the pleasant aspects. Agreed? I believe that we should learn how to write. You can spend your money on something else if you don’t waste it on writing assistance. But why should we use it, on the other hand? When you require a resume or a cover letter, those could be useful. I wouldn’t utilize it to get an essay. And it’s easy to see why in American campuses.
View source https://essaypay.com/essay-examples/21-10-2019/a-detailed-examination-of-pablo-picassos-painting-les-demoiselles-davignon
“Firstly, Picasso has many thought from the history and ancient cultures, so the Cubism artists constantly utilised conventional elements to designed, In painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” Picasso utilised conventional photos to designed curvaceous nude bathers, we can see the human bodies really uncomfortable.”
for example, spend your money on writing assistance.
From the looks of YOUR writing, you saved a bunch of money not getting writing assistance.
Hehehe! 😁
As I’ve said about the crime ridden cities, and now with several states, this is what a majority of voters supported. This is what happens when the limousine liberals get power. Since few of their laws will impact their lives, or they exempt themselves, they can happily do whatever they choose to the working tax payers. A few businesses leave? So what. A few dissatisfied residents get out? Don’t let the door hit you on the ass. Crime stats out of control? Just change the laws and stop arresting low level criminals. Any chance of armed citizens fighting back, either against the criminals, or the over bearing government? Find an end run around the Constitution and any court orders and make it illegal to own, manufacture, or sell firearms. Make the exercise of whatever right so expensive, or so heavily restrictive and regulated that few outside the political/financially elites can afford to do so.
We need a new nuisance law against these states, cali, ny, nj etc. that defy the constitution. They are a nuisance to our country and our citizens. Any state that blatantly ignores the Supreme law of the land should be disbanded and divided up to be run by its neighboring states. All politicians complicit in the illegal actions of their state should be tried for their actions and punished accordingly.
Woman in a Toyota backed into my Cobra and scraped the bumper cover if I lived in CA could I file a nuisance lawsuit against Toyota and the dealer that sold the car to that menace to society?
If I lived in California, could I pursue a nuisance case against Toyota and the dealer who sold the car to the woman who rear-ended my Cobra and damaged the bumper cover?
Thanx, Will Z.
The Demherroids here control two things:
The hatred that burns inside them, and
the media that teaches that misinformed
hate to the ever-fearful masses.
I’m an evangelical Christian, and I’ve seen plenty evil done by folks over time, hence my church work. But I’ve never felt that it
was growing so fast and virulently.
I’ve seen it really up too close here and I
concur with your pleas for the brimstone…
I misspoke…Three Things:
THE BALLOT BOX
When Clinton “won” re-election I asked 200 locals during the next few weeks who they chose. THREE said Clinton. That’s in my Left-Leaning Left Coast Paradise Destination Beach City. Convince me Americans didn’t vote him out.
This last bout, getting rid of corrupt Hair Gel Rich Kid was a landslide. Up until those truckloads of mystery ballots were “found”.
The recall ballot had ONE single pair of YES/NO ovals to choose, and it was put into an envelope with squiggly ink lines all over inside it. A rectangle on the outside was for you to sign your name and date. No signature, and your ballot could be voided. No warning regarding the date, though…
With the ballot placed properly into that envelope, your highly secret choice was perfectly seen through the signature “window”. Squiggly ink lines did not obscure that! I could send the photo of his phone’s screen (erases friend’s info and uses my iPhone’s) to the site moderator, just ask and tell me how.
We never voted for this crap! This pretty state is beyond corrupt. We have absolutely no voice here.
I’ve come to the conclusion that voting is nothing more then a moral test.
.gov:
“People are voting, they still believe the lie. It’s when they quit voting is when we’ve got problems.”
They gonna do this with alcohol too? Yeah right. They will say that is ridiculous, which pretty much proves it’s just a personal agenda.
Loser pays tort reform is way overdue.
Hi guys, legal problems can happen to anyone, so if anything, I recommend contacting Paul Mankin, who is an experienced and talented attorney. He will always come to your aid and solve the problem to your maximum advantage. Take care of yourself!
WTF? so we can’t say “soshullist” OR Vergina but we CAN run ads for “ambulance chasers”.
Will the unconstitutional laws of the Commiefornia socialists never cease?
I’m a little late to this particular party (sorry but sometimes life intrudes) so what I have to say might be too late 🙁
The liars oops I mean lawyers have been slobbering to get something like this passed for at least the last 50 years that I personally know of. In WA (state) it was called ‘vicarious liability’ and afaik it didn’t fly. What it ALWAYS boils down to is trying to foist the blame – especially for intentional criminal misuse of a lawful product – to objects or other people, preferable both. By doing so that takes away ANY personal accountability/responsibility from the criminal. It also ‘poisons’ the attitude of the uneducated public (aka sheeple) and makes it easier for them to buy in to prohibitions or infringements – for the children of course.
If I were a gun manufacturer , or wholesaler I’d completely pull all of my products including ammo our of Commiefornia. The citizens of this sheet hole brought this on themselves so let them suffer !
What else would you expect from these idiots???????????? They will NEVER take the blame for ANYTHING they do. And yet the stupid people of Commiefornia keep electing them because they outnumber those of us who don’t. I hope the New California group gets the state split so we can let all the idiots have their space along the coast and we can have the rest of the state for those of us who don’t believe the way THEY do.
Comments are closed.