California would be the first state to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance to cover negligent or accidental use of their firearms, if lawmakers pass a measure announced Thursday.
“Guns kill more people than cars. However, gun owners are not required to carry liability insurance like car owners,” Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner said in a statement.
She said the costs of gun violence should not be borne by taxpayers, survivors, families, employers and communities: “It’s time for gun owners to shoulder their fair share.”
New York state is considering a similar requirement in the wake of numerous recent mass shootings and an increase in gun violence.
In January, the Silicon Valley city of San Jose passed what is believed to be the first such insurance requirement in the United States.
No insurance company will cover the misuse of a firearm, predicted Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California.
He said such requirements are an illegal violation of the constitutional rights of gun owners.
“We do not believe that precursors can be put to the exercise of a constitutional right,” said Paredes. “By requiring someone to obtain insurance in order to exercise their right to keep and bear arms, that ceases to be a right.”
Skinner is amending an existing bill on another subject to allow gun owners to be held civilly liable if their firearms are used to cause property damage, injury or death.
The bill would also require gun owners to carry insurance that covers loss or damage from the negligent or accidental use of their firearm. And they would have to keep proof of insurance with their firearm and show it to the police if they are stopped for any reason.
Paredes had similar objections to a second bill that would also hit gun owners’ costs, this one by imposing a special tax on firearms and ammunition.
President Joe Biden sent a message to the nation demanding legislative changes for greater control of firearms after the recent massacres in different parts of the country.
The bill would impose a special tax equal to 10% of the sale price of a firearm and 11% of the sale price of a long gun, ammunition or parts to build firearms.
Democratic Assemblyman Marc Levine estimated that his bill would generate more than $118 million annually for gun violence prevention programs.
Because it would impose a tax, Levine’s bill would require two-thirds majority approval in the Legislature. His similar measure last year fell four votes short of the 54 he needed in the 80-member Assembly.
The bills are among numerous gun measures California lawmakers are considering this year, including one that would make it easier to sue gun manufacturers and another that would allow citizens to sue those who traffic in illegal guns.
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