His action comes one month after conservative justices overturned women's constitutional right to abortions and undermined gun control laws in states including California.
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.
But the gun control advocacy organizations Moms Demand Action and affiliated Students Demand Action backed the bill's potential to combat untraceable"ghost guns." Aside from the merits of the bill, opponents say it is written to discourage any legal challenges to California's myriad gun regulations by requiring plaintiffs or lawyers to pay attorneys' fees if they lose the lawsuit.
They include measures requiring schools to periodically inform parents about the safe storage of firearms and barring anyone from making more than three guns a year or making any guns with a 3D printer without obtaining a state-issued license. Yet California finds itself among states fighting rear-guard actions against the Supreme Court's conservative wing.