The law passed on Friday in California aims to ban certain weapons by encouraging citizens to file a complaint against their manufacturers and sellers. It is inspired by a Texan law against abortion that the Supreme Court, Pro Arms and Anti-IVG, had refused to derive.
Le Monde with AFP
California counter-attacks. Determined to regulate access to firearms, the State, led by the Democrats, adopted on Friday a law authorizing citizens to pursue an individual anyone who manufactures or sells assault rifles on its territory, inspired by ‘A very controversial device to dissuade women from aborting in Texas.
Last year, long before the Supreme Court of the United States returned to the constitutional right of women at the voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), the very conservative Texas had decided to entrust citizens with the right to ‘Understand civil proceedings against all organizations and people who help women to abort. The Texan law provides that they affect at least $ 10,000 in compensation in the event of a conviction in court.
The elected officials of California, a very mainly democratic state, fiercely attached to the right to abortion and favorable to a strict regulation of firearms, decided to use the same legal arsenal to enforce their laws in the matter, that they consider threatened. The Californian governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on Friday, similar to the Texan abortion law, which authorizes citizens to pursue all those who make, sell or transport forbidden firearms (assault rifles, weapons in kit so -called “Ghosts”, etc.), with here again a compensation of $ 10,000 to the key.
“We are inspired by Texas. Frankly, if Texas can use citizens’ right to take legal action to attack women, then we can use this right to make California safer”, launched during a Press point The Californian senator Anthony Portantino, co -author of this law.
a legal battle on the horizon
The law, which must enter into force on January 1, 2023, will certainly be challenged in justice and be the subject of numerous appeals from conservative organizations and the firearm lobby. But “the Supreme Court opened the door. The Supreme Court said it was ok. It was a terrible decision but these are the rules it established,” said Governor Newsom.
The highest American jurisdiction, the majority of the judges appointed for life are conservative, had refused to invalidate the Texan provisions restricting the right to abortion. Last month, the Supreme Court also devoted the right of Americans to circulating armed in public, invalidating restrictions at the weapon of arms provided for in a New York State law. Gavin Newsom had judged this decision “shameful” and “dangerous”.
Nearly 400 million weapons were in circulation in the civilian population in the United States in 2017, or 120 weapons per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey project. Fire -by -fire violence has killed more than 24,000, including 13,000 suicides, since the start of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archives site.