California hit with lawsuit after passing 23 gun control laws, ‘the latest assault on our rights’

This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom upheld his position as one of the nation’s leading anti-gun advocates, signing an exhaustive package of 23 gun control measures into law.

Notably, the legislation imposes a hefty excise tax (11%) on firearms and ammunition, the first state tax on firearms in the nation. It also limits where Californians can legally carry, sets the minimum age for concealed carry at 21, bolsters background checks, and mandates the “‘microstamping’ of all semi-automatic firearms sold in or transferred to California by 2028,” according to CNN. “Microstamping involves engraving a unique identifier onto the firing pin of a weapon, which is stamped onto bullet shell casings when the gun is fired, making it easier for investigators to tie shell casings recovered at crime scenes to the specific gun involved.” The NRA has strongly refuted the claim that microstamping is a viable gun violence preventative. 

“Addressing gun violence is critical to protecting public safety; we cannot pretend that they are distinct problems,” declared Rob Bonta, California Attorney General. “In California, we won’t settle for inaction when it comes to saving lives," he said, describing the anti-gun legislative package. "Senate Bill 2 will help prevent violence by ensuring that dangerous individuals may not carry concealed guns in public and prohibiting the carry of dangerous weapons in sensitive places where our children gather. With this law, we are boldly advancing California’s successful, data-driven strategy to prevent gun violence and save lives. I sponsored Senate Bill 2 to provide stronger protections for our communities, and am grateful for the partnership demonstrated by… our Governor as together we enact this law to better protect California residents.”

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While pro-gun control lawmakers in the state praised the effort, other pro-Second Amendment groups were less favorable, quickly slapping the state with a lawsuit. 

In one highly critical report’s prediction, “The bill almost certainly will rapidly be subject to an injunction that will place most, if not all of it, on hold. Until the injunction is lifted (assuming that it isn’t deemed unconstitutional by the courts), old California laws apply. The bill is blatantly unconstitutional under Bruen and again, barring republic-destroying political shenanigans in the federal court system, it will be invalidated taking its wild gun free zone restrictions with it forever.”

According to the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America (GOA), Erich Pratt, whose organization already filed a lawsuit against California government officials, “This is just the latest assault on our rights in California. Just as concerning, Governor Gavin Newsom has already made his anti-gun intentions quite clear: he wants to effectively repeal the Second Amendment.”

“Sadly,” Pratt added, “his acknowledgment that doing so would be the only way to enact more gun control did not dissuade him from violating his oath when he signed this law into effect, but we are fully prepared to fight back.”

GOA’s lawsuit points out that in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), the Supreme Court ruled “that the law-abiding citizens of this Nation have a general right to carry firearms for protection in public and therefore that states cannot limit eligibility for carry licenses to those with an atypical need for self-defense.”

“After Bruen, California’s previous may-issue licensing system was plainly unconstitutional," the lawsuit argues. "Undeterred, however, California now is attempting another strategy for infringing the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. Rather than strictly limiting who can obtain a carry license, California now strictly limits where even its citizens with licenses can carry firearms. This approach is no more constitutional than the State’s prior approach.”

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In addition to passing Senate Bill 2, California has also recently become the first state to call for an Article V convention for the sole purpose of passing a gun control amendment. Convention of States Action, among others, has blasted the state for this Newsom-led endeavor, pointing out that calling such a convention is mathematically impossible. The effort has been widely debunked and dismissed even by Newsom supporters.

While the governor no doubt knows his Article V bid is, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “unattainable,” it seems Newsom wants to force the topic of gun control into the national political conversation, possibly further endangering law-abiding gun owners’ right to keep and bear and arms.

It’s time to call an Article V convention—not one to demolish the Second Amendment (as Newsom would like to do), but one that secures the entire Constitution and ensures that power-hungry politicians are never allowed to mine away our constitutional freedoms.