Picture this: the great Golden State — land of overpriced avocado toast and underperforming politicians — just got slapped so hard by the First Amendment that taxpayers are now footing a $1.38 million bill. And the kicker? They asked for it. Twice.
California, in its infinite wisdom, decided a few years back that firearms companies shouldn’t be allowed to advertise to young people. Sounds noble if you don’t think about it for more than three seconds. The state passed Assembly Bill 2571, which banned “firearms industry members” — whatever that means — from marketing anything firearms-related in a way that “reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.” Two phrases so vague they could apply to a Nerf commercial.
The Ninth Circuit Said No. Then Said No Again.
Here’s where it gets stupid. Safari Club International, the United States Sportsman’s Alliance Foundation, and the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation didn’t even bother making this a Second Amendment fight. They went straight First Amendment — commercial speech, plain and simple. They threw in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments for good measure, arguing the law was unconstitutionally vague and discriminated against a perfectly legal industry selling perfectly legal products.
And the Ninth Circuit — yes, that Ninth Circuit, the one conservatives usually trust about as far as they can throw a Prius — agreed. Not once. Twice. California lost the case, appealed like a kid who won’t accept the umpire’s call, and lost again.
So now the state has waved the white flag and agreed to pay $1,381,749.72 in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs. Your tax dollars at work, California. Hope that feels good.
Gavin Newsom’s Million-Dollar Tantrum
The Second Amendment Foundation’s Kostas Moros didn’t hold back, and honestly, why would he?
“Gavin Newsom passed a law to attack the First Amendment because he was mad about a .22lr rifle that was meant for junior shooters. That little stunt has cost California taxpayers over a million dollars, not including whatever CADOJ spent on their own lawyers.”
Moros broke down the damage: $350K to the Second Amendment Foundation, $550K to the CRPA coalition, and another $480K in the parallel Safari Club case. Then he asked the question every California taxpayer should be screaming from the rooftops:
“Will Newsom apologize to taxpayers for this waste? We appreciate your contribution, idiot.”
But wait — there’s more. Because California didn’t just lose gracefully the first time. Oh no. They tried some half-baked legal maneuver to limit the injunction to only part of the law, dragging the whole thing out for months and racking up even more legal fees. Moros summed that up beautifully:
“And remember, California could have stopped after their first Ninth Circuit loss. Instead, they made a harebrained push to limit the injunction to only one part of the law, extending the case for many more months and adding to the legal bills. Sucks to suck.”
Poetry.
The Real Lesson Nobody in Sacramento Will Learn
Here’s the thing the left keeps forgetting: the First Amendment doesn’t come with an asterisk. It doesn’t say “free speech, unless we find your product icky.” Firearms are legal. Advertising them is legal. And yes, some of that advertising targets younger shooters — kids who hunt, kids who compete in shooting sports, kids whose parents actually teach them responsibility instead of handing them an iPad and calling it parenting.
Manufacturers make rifles designed for the youth market. It’s all above board. Every single bit of it. But Gavin Newsom, with his hair gel and his presidential fantasies, thought he could just wave a legislative wand and make the Constitution disappear.
Spoiler: he couldn’t.
This is what happens when progressive politicians treat the Bill of Rights like a suggestion box. They burn through taxpayer money on legal battles they were never going to win, all so they can pose for a press conference and pretend they’re saving the children. The children, meanwhile, are still hunting deer with their dads and having the time of their lives.
California just paid nearly $1.4 million to learn that the Constitution still works. And somewhere in Sacramento, Gavin Newsom is staring into a mirror, adjusting his hair, and learning absolutely nothing.