Alan Dershowitz is a famous attorney in the United States who has represented high-profile figures for celebrities and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.
Dershowitz is no fan of the 2nd Amendment. In 2015 he famously told NewsmaxTV that the 2nd Amendment was “an absurd thing” and that the Constitution should be changed to a presumption against gun ownership.
Now, Dershowitz is urging gun control advocates to use Texas’s new anti-abortion law and create a similar law in blue states to target the sale of firearms. Leave it to the lawyers to try and figure out how to attack gun owners in an all-new way.
In an Op-Ed posted on The Hill, Dershowitz said the following on how anti-gun activists could use the “bounty” portion of the Texas law and do it to firearm sales,
Consider this out-of-the-box proposal: Liberal, pro-gun-control states could apply the Texas bounty approach to gun control. New York or Illinois, for example, could declare that gun crime has gotten so serious that the private ownership of most handguns should be deterred. It would be unconstitutional for the state to authorize the criminal prosecution of those who facilitate constitutionally protected gun ownership. But the state could, instead, enact a gun-bounty civil law modeled on the Texas abortion law. It would empower any citizen to sue for $10,000 anyone who facilitates the sale or ownership of handguns.
While Dershowitz’s proposal likely won’t work in a Red state, it certainly is an idea that could be tried in a Blue state.
It isn’t hard to imagine a state like California, New York, or New Jersey passing a law like the Texas anti-abortion law. So while gun owners may not be paying attention to something like Dershowitz’s proposal, we should be watching very closely.
Gun control advocates are always “thinking outside the box” when it comes to attacking the 2nd Amendment, and that means we need to do the same in thinking about how to protect it.
What do you think about Dershowitz’s proposal, and would it withstand a court challenge? Let us know in the comments below!
