Gun owners must have insurance

[George K]

San Jose: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/26/san-jose-gun-owners-liability-insurance/

City lawmakers in San Jose, Calif., took a preliminary vote Tuesday to require gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay an annual fee, a step toward adopting what’s believed to be the first measure of its kind in the United States aiming to reduce the risk of gun harm by incentivizing safer behavior.

The San Jose City Council overwhelmingly approved the Gun Harm Reduction Ordinances, despite opposition from gun owners who say the law would violated their Second Amendment rights. The push for liability insurance and an annual fee was introduced by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (D) after a May 2021 shooting at a light-rail facility that killed nine people.

The city council decided in a 10-to-1 vote that gun owners would be required to purchase liability insurance through their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance so that the plan would cover everyone in their household. Lawmakers also voted, 8-3, for gun owners to pay an annual fee of about $25 that would go toward a nonprofit organization focusing on gun prevention programs in San Jose.

The ordinance must be approved at a final reading next month before it can take effect by August.

Before the vote, Liccardo estimated that city residents incur about $442 million in annual gun-related costs, including “private financial costs to individuals and families” — and that gun violence costs San Jose taxpayers $40 million a year in emergency response services.
“Tonight San Jose became the first city in the United States to enact an ordinance to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance, and to invest funds generated from fees paid by gun owners into evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm,” Liccardo said in a news release. “Thank you to my council colleagues who continue to show their commitment to reducing gun violence and its devastation in our community.”

Gonna be an interesting court battle.

Agree or not, the possession of firearms is a constitutional right. Selecting those who choose to avail themselves of that right by a mandate sounds pretty sketchy to me.

Of course, it'll be funny interesting to see how this ordinance affects crime and gun-related shootings in San Jose.

[Copper]

@george-k said in Gun owners must have insurance:

City lawmakers in San Jose, Calif., took a preliminary vote Tuesday to require gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay an annual fee

They should make a law that forbids shooting people.

[jon-nyc]

Next the fascists will require insurance for cars.

[Mik]

The Constitution does not specify a right to drive cars. That is a privilege granted by the states and using public facilities.

[LuFins Dad]

I support stronger gun legislation, mostly dealing with licensing, but come on, @jon-nyc

27,000 people in the US are accidentally injured by guns every year. Over 3,000,000 are injured in car accidents. I'd say there's quite a difference in scale.

[Larry]

The flaw in trying to argue against guns by citing statistics on how many were hurt or killed by guns is that no one is keeping statistics on the number of people who were helped or saved by a gun.