Newsom's gun-control stunt – good TV, bad law

California Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled many this weekend by saying that his administration will model a new law on the Texas abortion ban, letting private citizens sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns. 

It won't work. Legally, that is. It will be hugely successful politically, but not without costs to the state and potential litigants.

Newsom denounced the Supreme Court in Women's Health v. Jackson for refusing to enjoin the Texas law that allows people to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion performed after about six weeks. That led to widespread calls for the passage of legislation to "codify Roe," including from the White House.

Newsom, however, wants to replicate the law to limit Second Amendment rights the way that conservatives used it to limit reproductive rights.