Judge blocks California from suing makers of 'abnormally dangerous' guns
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Wednesday blocked California's attorney general from enforcing a new law that allows residents, the state and local governments to sue members of the firearms industry that manufacture or sell «abnormally dangerous» guns.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Schopler in San Diego sided with a firearms industry trade association in finding that part of a gun control measure signed into law by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022 was likely unconstitutional.
It is the first ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of California's Firearm Industry Responsibility Act.
The law was enacted shortly after the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in June 2022 concerning the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment that significantly expanded gun rights.
Newsom, in signing the new state firearms restrictions into law in July 2022, called them necessary to ensure makers of deadly firearms could be held accountable in court and could «no longer hide from the mass destruction that they have caused.»
But in a lawsuit filed in May, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) argued California's restrictions violated several provisions of the U.S. Constitution including the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms.
Schopler, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, did not address the Second Amendment issue in Wednesday's ruling and instead found the law likely violated the Constitution's so-called dormant Commerce Clause, which restricts states from interfering with interstate commerce.
For example, he said, a Tennessee company that manufacturers guns that are legal in its state but that meet California's definition of
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