California has agreed to pay more than $1.3 million to gun rights organizations after the state’s ban on advertising firearms to minors was struck down twice by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The settlement, announced Tuesday, resolves a lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and allied plaintiffs against California’s Marketing Firearms to Minors Law. The state will pay $1,381,749.72 in attorney fees.
The law had banned truthful advertisements for firearms, including ads targeting young hunters and junior shooting sports participants. The Ninth Circuit ruled against California in September 2023, with Judge Kenneth Lee writing in the majority opinion that the law “does not directly and materially advance California’s substantial interests in reducing gun violence and the unlawful use of firearms by minors.”
“There was no evidence in the record that a minor in California has ever unlawfully bought a gun, let alone because of an ad,” Lee wrote.
The court further held that California cannot “straitjacket the First Amendment by, on the one hand, allowing minors to possess and use firearms and then, on the other hand, banning truthful advertisements about that lawful use of firearms.”
The Second Amendment Foundation noted on X that Gov. Gavin Newsom passed the law in response to a .22 caliber rifle marketed for junior shooters. “That little stunt has cost California taxpayers over a million dollars, not including whatever [California Department of Justice] spent on their own lawyers,” the group wrote. The total includes $350,000 to the Second Amendment Foundation, $550,000 to the Criminals Rights Protection Association coalition, and $480,000 in a parallel case brought by Safari Club International on the same issues.
The Firearms Policy Coalition said the settlement confirms “its minor firearms advertising ban violates the First Amendment,” noting that California had “lost twice at the Ninth Circuit” before agreeing to pay.
The case drew attention as an example of lawmakers targeting legal speech to advance gun control policy. Critics have argued that California under Newsom has repeatedly passed unconstitutional firearms restrictions, forcing rights groups to spend years in court to defeat them.
