California Is Now FORCING GUN OWNERS To Hold Liability Insurance!

On Tuesday, a new ordinance for gun owners has been approved in San Jose California. This ordinance will require gun owners to purchase liability insurance and pay an annual fee for their firearms.

Despite the opposition received from the gun owners that said their Second Amendment rights would be violated, the city council still overwhelmingly approved the ordinance.

In addition, the city also approved a $25 annual charge for gun owners directed to a nonprofit set up to distribute funds to gun crime prevention and to victims of gun violence.

Watch it here: Bloomberg/Youtube

The Silicon Valley city of about 1 million followed a trend of other Democratic-led cities that have sought to rein in violence through stricter rules. But while similar laws have been proposed, San Jose is the first city to pass one, according to Brady United, a national nonprofit that advocates against gun violence.

Prior to the vote, Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights and executive director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights and an opponent of the proposed law, told CNN, “We’ve opposed this ordinance every step of the way and we will see this through to the end. … If the San Jose City Council actually votes to impose this ridiculous tax on the Constitutional right to gun ownership, our message is clear and simple: see you in court.”

 After a mass shooting at a public transit rail yard in San Jose in May 2021 in which eight workers were killed, the San Jose city council unanimously approved drafting the ordinance calling for the restrictions on gun owners.

In an op-ed letter, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat wrote last week:

We anticipate that a barrage of lawsuits from the firearm industry and gun rights advocates will follow. … Why should any city subject itself to litigation? Because now-common horrific reports of shootings throughout the nation do little more than elicit a performative parade of prayers and platitudes from Congress. Because problem-solving must be elevated over political posturing.

Requiring every gun owner in my city to carry liability insurance will better compensate unintentional shooting victims and their families for medical and related expenses. More importantly, insurance can also incentivize safer gun ownership. Risk-adjusted premiums will encourage owners to take gun-safety courses, use gun safes or install child-safe trigger locks to reduce the annual toll of accidental gun harm. …

Gun rights advocates argue that gun owners should not have to pay a fee to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms. To be sure, the 2nd Amendment protects the rights of citizens to own guns, but it doesn’t require the public to subsidize gun ownership. …

Critics say that criminals won’t obey insurance or fee mandates — and they are right. But these ordinances create a legal mandate that gives police the means for at least the temporary forfeiture of guns from dangerous law-breakers.

Sources: Daily Wire, CNN, LA Times, ABC10, USA Today