California law now censors any imagery associated with the promotion of firearm use that could be deemed attractive to minors . Allowed to stand , the future of youth hunting and shooting sports will be erased completely .
TAKING CALIFORNIA TO COURT Shortly after Gov . Newsom signed AB 2571 into law , which was effective July 1 , the Sportsmen ’ s Alliance rallied and organized hunting , conservation and advocacy organizations to mount a defense against the obviously unconstitutional law by filing suit against the measure in federal court . Our coalition , which includes Safari Club International , So Cal Top Guns , a youth shotgun shooting program in California , and Congressional Sportsmen ’ s Foundation , seeks to protect youth hunting , shooting sports and education in the state — as well as the civil liberties associated with them .
While the new law clearly infringes on the Second Amendment , it violates the First Amendment even more egregiously , as well as the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment . It targets not just the marketing of firearms , ammunition and parts in any medium that could potentially appear attractive to minors , it makes it illegal for any person or organization to promote activities where minors might use firearms .
This makes marketing any youth firearm illegal , but it goes even further . Promoting the National 4-H Shooting Sports program , or any high-school gun club , team or other organized shooting event is illegal . For hunters , the law makes it impossible to tout a youth hunt organized by nonprofit conservation organizations . It even makes it impossible to hold hunter education . Why ? Because a conservation organization can ’ t hold a safety / education class or youth hunt without advertising it to someone , whether its own members or the public . By advertising an activity that promotes the use of firearms , regardless of the context , an individual , company or organization is in violation of the overly broad law . And each violation of the law comes at a steep price : up to a $ 25,000 fine per impression , occurrence or publication of prohibited communications .
GAVIN : THE MACHIAVELLIAN GOVERNOR
It ’ s not a stretch to say California Gov . Gavin Newsom is the most unscrupulous and dangerous governor in America when it comes to issues important to sportsmen .
The son of a California appeals court judge who was a founding board member of the Mountain Lion Foundation and Wildlife Conservancy , as well as a supporter of the Sierra Foundation , Earth Justice and the Environmental Defense Fund , Newsom has animal-extremism in his blood . At age 22 , he helped his father pass Proposition 117 in 1990 that banned mountain lion hunting , and he ’ s only grown more powerful .
Since the prince of animal rights ascended the gubernatorial throne in 2018 , he ’ s wreaked havoc with wildlife management . He signed laws that prohibit the sale of new fur products in the state and that ban all recreational trapping , as well as all bobcat hunting .
Two years ago , the California senate just missed the midnight cutoff when it passed a concurrence vote of Senate Bill 1175 , which banned the possession or importation of animal products ( taxidermy ) from a number of African big-game species . As lieutenant governor in 2018 , Newsom wrote a letter of support for a nearly identical bill that was eventually vetoed by Gov . Jerry Brown .
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