No one ever accused Governor Gavin Newsom of being the smartest governor ever.

Clearly, Newsom has aspirations for higher office, as his recent ads in Florida and Texas (telling people their “freedom” is at risk if abortion on demand is not allowed, and adding in guns for good measure when it comes to Texas) prove. Why else would the governor of California be running ads in different states if he wasn’t thinking about laying the groundwork for a presidential run?

Newsom's full-page ad trolling Abbott in Texas newspapers today comes after a similar campaign strategy attacking GOP Gov. @RonDeSantisFL

An Abbott spokesperson says Newsom "should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas" in response https://t.co/815cDykTue

— Monica Madden (@themonicamadden) July 22, 2022

Democrats, who know they have a weak bench, are eagerly keeping an eye on Newsom. (Kamala Harris hardest hit.) However, Newsom carries quite a lot of baggage of his own. How was dinner at the French Laundry, Governor? Also, how about the mask mandate that San Diego wants to push back onto students in school? Newsom’s COVID record will come back to bite him on the national stage. There’s a lot that Newsom would also prefer to not talk about, like crime and homelessness. It’s much easier to point at Florida and Texas than try and stop the crime wave in California.

Newsom loves himself some good posturing, and he has decided that gun control will be his way of making his mark. Never mind that California already has very restrictive gun laws – Newsom is ready to take on the Supreme Court! How? He’s already signed one bill allowing civil lawsuits by “victims of gun violence” against gun manufacturers, and has now signed into law a gun bill that will allow ANYONE to sue manufacturers of “ghost guns” or certain “assault weapons” by using the Texas law that allowed citizens to sue abortion providers as his model for this gun bill.

Newsom stitched the two hot-button topics together in approving a law allowing people to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons, parts that can be used to build weapons, guns without serial numbers, or .50 caliber rifles. They would be awarded at least $10,000 in civil damages for each weapon, plus attorneys fees.”

“While the Supreme Court rolls back reasonable gun safety measures, California continues adding new ways to protect the lives of our kids,” Newsom said in a statement released before he signed the bill. “California will use every tool at its disposal to save lives, especially in the face of an increasingly extreme Supreme Court.”

Lawmakers patterned the bill, at Newsom’s request, after a Texas law allowing citizens to sue anyone who provides or assists in providing an abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court gave preliminary approval to the Texas law, but California’s law will automatically be invalidated if the Texas law is eventually ruled unconstitutional.”

Given that the Supreme Court just gave the Second Amendment a major victory in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, this seems to be an odd time to try and craft this law. But this isn’t really about gun control to Newsom. It’s about Texas’s abortion law. And Newsom is more than happy to try a political stunt that marries the two issues.

The governor has maintained the measure is about protecting Californians from gun violence. But it also sends a message to a Supreme Court whose rulings Newsom and fellow California Democrats have derided, essentially daring it to either uphold the gun law or reconsider its logic in backing Texas’s approach.”

“The question is whether they are complete and abject hypocrites and frauds if they reject our bill that’s modeled after that abortion bill as it relates to private right of action to go after assault weapons,” Newsom said this month.”

Who says this is a stunt? Um, other Democrats and the ACLU.

Yet the law could stand on precarious legal ground. Even Democratic legislators who favor gun restrictions said as much in passing the bill, conceding that it employed a dubious legal strategy in the service of a larger goal.”

“It is my hope and desire that ultimately this bill actually not proceed because the Texas law is found to be wrong, unconstitutional and crazy,” state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) said before voting for the measure in April.”

It also drew fierce opposition from ideological allies of Newsom who warned he was empowering the very type of reasoning he had condemned. “There is no way to ‘take advantage of the flawed logic’ of the Texas law,” ACLU California Action said in a statement, warning of “a radical and dangerous assault on our constitutional structure” that could “escalate an ‘arms race’ of new weapons to curtail the adjudication of rights by setting up bounty-hunting schemes on politically sensitive issues.”

Days earlier, Newsom signed a similar bill allowing individual Californians, the attorney general, cities, and counties to sue gun manufacturers for negligence. The law mirrors a newly enacted New York measure that has so far survived legal challenges. “If you’ve been hurt or a family member is a victim of gun violence, you can now go to court and hold these makers of deadly weapons accountable,” Newsom said in a video message.”

Both gun lawsuits bills, along with California’s larger universe of firearms restrictions, could be under threat after the Supreme Court embraced an expansive Second Amendment interpretation in striking down concealed carry permits. California responded by simultaneously ceding some discretion over who can receive permits and pursuing new legislation to create new requirements.”

Newsom has nothing to lose in this. He gets attention and accolades from his constituents – the hard left and the media – either way this goes. He gets credit for trying to DO SOMETHING™ and gets credit for “standing up” to the EEEEEEEVIL Supreme Court. After all, this isn’t about actually passing an effective law. This is about building his brand for a potential 2024 run. The Democrats all are coming to the realization that Biden can’t run again. The think pieces being published now will simply become a loud demand after the shellacking that looks to be coming in the midterms. Newsom is just jumping the line to get a head start out of the gate, burnishing up his progressive left credentials while actually ignoring the problems in his own state.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click