A four-year legal battle that saw the entire gun industry bend over backwards to comply is over, and California is on the losing side.
You know how most gun websites around lately have suddenly started asking users to verify they are over 18 years of age? The reason for that was just zapped by a federal court as being unconstitutional.
California Business and Professions Code Section 22949.80, passed as AB 2571 by the Democrat-controlled state Assembly and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in June 2022, provided for a civil penalty of $25,000 for any and each instance of firearm-related marketing to persons under the age of 18. That includes the “...use, or ownership of firearm-related products...” as well as “... events where firearm-related products are sold or used.”
Soon after it went into effect, most online firearm-related websites – Guns.com included – began verifying users' age to comply with the AB 2571 mandate. Other effects rippled through youth shooting sports in California, with at least one large organization, the California State High School Clay Target League, disbanding under the prospect that something as innocuous as emailing match details to student-athletes could result in a barrage of fines from the state attorney general's office.
Challenged in federal court by a variety of groups, California was forced to raise the white flag on the law this week in the case of Safari Club v. Bonta, and recognized the court's declaration that "Section 22949.80, in its entirety, violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. This permanently enjoins the state from enforcing any or all of 22949.80's portions.
Further, the plaintiffs in the case, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Safari Club International, So Cal Top Guns, and the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, were awarded $481,792 in attorneys' fees, payable by the California DOJ.
"The First Amendment provides different levels of protection to all forms of speech,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. "When it comes to commercial advertising, it protects truthful, non-misleading advertising, unless those advertisements further some other illegal activity."
Banner image: Behind the clays line at the 2021 Minnesota Trap Shooting Championship. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
