GOA, GOF File Coalition Lawsuit Challenging California’s Orwellian Surveillance Requirements for Gun Dealers

By Walter Smoloski

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 20, 2023

Washington, D.C. — Last night, Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) joined Gun Owners of California (GOC) and several other plaintiffs** in filing a lawsuit challenging California’s SB 1384, which imposes Orwellian-level surveillance requirements on the State’s gun dealers.  Slated to take effect on January 1, 2024, the new requirements would:

force every gun dealer in the state to install sophisticated surveillance equipment that records both video and audio of every gun sale that occurs in California;
force dealers to bear the cost to purchase and install this prohibitively expensive system, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars (one big box store reportedly has spent over $250,000 to comply, at only one location);
force dealers to allow state officials access to the recordings, upon demand;
require dealers to post signage informing customers that their activities are being recorded; and
does not exempt California’s home-based dealers, who will be forced to install state surveillance equipment within their own homes.

GOA and GOF’s lawsuit brings a variety of challenges to what is essentially California’s version of the “telescreen” from Orwell’s novel “1984,” including:

several First Amendment challenges based on (i ) freedom of speech, (ii) freedom of association, (iii) the right to

Source: Gun Owners of America