The Firearms Industry Liability Act, which takes full effect in July 2023, allows individuals, local governments and the California attorney general to sue gun manufacturers if their firearms are used irresponsibly or have caused harm. In a video statement Tuesday, Newsom said “almost every industry is held accountable when their products cause harm or injury.” “All but one: the arms industry,” the governor said. “Today, California is going to change that. They can no longer hide from the mass destruction they have caused.” Gun manufacturers are usually protected from civil lawsuits under the federal Protection of Lawful Trade in Firearms Act of 2005, but they can still be held liable for negligence or breach of contract. It’s also not the only industry with shield laws, with the pharmaceutical industry also having some protection under federal law. California’s new Firearms Industry Liability Act operates under an exception to the 2005 federal law, allowing lawsuits if gun manufacturers violate state laws related to the sale and marketing of firearms, according to his office Newsom. California’s new law follows a string of deadly mass shootings in the US this year, including in May when a gunman opened fire at a church in Laguna Woods, California, killing one person before bystanders arrested him and strapped him to a chair. The California chapters of the advocacy groups Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action applauded the new law as a step toward reducing gun violence, which kills more than 3,000 Californians a year. “The gun manufacturers who have helped fuel the epidemic of gun violence in this country for far too long have gotten away without being held accountable for their reckless and dangerous actions,” Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, said in a statement Tuesday . “California is helping to turn the tide and bring real responsibility.” But the news comes after the US Supreme Court struck down a New York law that made it harder to conceal and carry a gun outside the home, expanding the constitutional Second Amendment right to bear arms. The Firearms Industry Liability Act is likely to be challenged in court and could be ruled unconstitutional after the Supreme Court’s ruling. Newsom, who is flirting with a possible 2024 White House bid, has continued to take action against gun violence. He also signed into law this month a measure banning the sale of firearms to minors and another law expanding grants to prevent gun violence. The governor is expected to sign other gun control measures into law this summer, including one that allows private individuals to sue gun manufacturers and dealers for at least $10,000 if a firearm has caused harm or injury. LeBron James: ‘I Wasn’t Knocking On Our Beautiful Country’ With Greener Comments Three Accused Of Stealing Lyrics From Eagles’ Don Henley This bill was modeled after a Texas law passed last year that overrides the then-existing precedent of Roe v. Wade to allow individuals to sue those who provide or assist in an abortion. Mike Gipson, a state Democrat who sponsored the Firearms Industry Accountability Act, said California “will not turn a blind eye to the gun industry’s direct responsibility for the killing machines they allow to flood our streets and kill loved ones us”. “Other industries and their products, even non-lethal ones, are held to this level of accountability,” Gipson said in a statement Tuesday. “Today, we stand together against the naysayers to create the type of parity that will save lives, setting a pattern for others across the nation to follow.”
