BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit in California challenging that state’s law requiring firearms dealers to video record all transactions, calling it a violation of First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
At issue is California Penal Code section 26806. SAF is joined by the California Rifle & Pistol Association, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, the Gun Owners Foundation, On Target Indoor Shooting Range, Gaalswyk Enterprises and three private citizens. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel and Tiffany D. Cheufront, Michel & Associates in Long Beach, and Donald Kilmer, Kilmer Law Office in Idaho.
Named as defendants are California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Robert Bonta, in their official capacities, and several unidentified officials. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The case is known as Richards v. Newsom.
“Requiring firearms retailers to video record their transactions is not only an egregious violation of privacy,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “it involves an expense that is both cost-prohibitive, and could literally drive small dealers out of business. In addition, it would be impossible to record such transactions at gun shows, because at such events, dealers are merely vendors, operating in a large facility where such equipment would be impossible to install.”
“The state is imposing Orwellian tactics to literally view and overhear private conversations of anyone who walks into a gun shop or visits a gun show, or the home of a residence-based licensed firearms dealer,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “That is a violation of privacy to which no person exercising any other civil right would ever be subjected.”
Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction against the enforcement of California Penal Code section 26806.
This is the 14th lawsuit SAF has filed in 2023, challenging extremist gun control laws. Currently, SAF is engaged in 57 active lawsuits around the country.