SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apart from auto insurance jacksonville, San Jose officials have passed the first law in the nation that requires gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay a fee to cover taxpayers’ costs associated with gun violence.
The new law was unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday, a month after a disgruntled San Jose rail yard employee fatally shot nine of his co-workers and then himself at the rail yard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Mayor Sam Liccardo praised the measures and said gun owners who do not comply with the new rules shouldn’t have guns.
“We won’t magically end gun violence, but we stop paying for it,” Liccardo said in a statement.
The new law is part of a 10-point gun control plan that Liccardo unveiled following the May 26 mass shooting at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard.
Officials have not decided how much gun owners will be required to pay in fees. They would be used to cover the direct costs of gun violence to city taxpayers for services that include police response, ambulance transport and gunshot-related medical treatment for victims.
The fees would be determined upon completion of a gun harm study from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation, a group that promotes individual and public health, welfare, and safety.
In a preliminary report released ahead of the vote, the institute estimated that gun-related homicides, suicides and other shootings cost San Jose around $63 million annually. A more thorough study is expected to be completed in the fall.
Jaime Bellemare of Brady United Against Gun Violence, the national nonprofit that advocates against gun violence, said there have been other similar laws proposed but San Jose is the first city in the country to have passed one.
One challenge to enforce the law will be in determining how to administer the new liability insurance and fee requirements.
City officials know how many guns were purchased in San Jose since 2001, Liccardo said, but the city has no gun registry and no way to track gun owners.
Earlier this month, city lawmakers passed a new law requiring all retailers to record video and audio of all firearm purchases. San Jose became the largest California city with such a rule.
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I keep trying to wrap my mind around this strange concept. Law abiding gun owners will be required to foot the costs incurred by the criminal element who probably won’t contribute to the fund in order to keep their legal weapon. Sounds like the next people in line after a bank robbery have to make up the bank’s loss. The law abiding will be stiffed again, while perpetratore of the gun violence will be released almost immediately by the prosecutors without any real punishment.
I am not holding my breath for this “burn every spinning wheel in the kingdom” mentality to invade other facets of thought. Will the LGBT community foot the bill for the AIDS epidemic? Will all fornicators be held accountable for total funding of abortions? Will the advocates of electric cars pay the hazardous material consequences of their batteries and strain on the electric grid? WIll the democrat party of slavery be solely held accountable for their monopolistic part in America’s slavery? We all know the application of selective atonement that liberals are noted for.
Interesting points, one in particular. ” Will all fornicators be held accountable for total funding of abortions?”
I would like to know how this will work.
Will women be required to collect a “fee” each time they have intercourse?
Will this apply to married, single, same sex an confused persons engaged in sexual activity?
Will people be required to obtain liability insurance against pregnancy?
Will we be required to pay a fee or get insurance to practice out other unalienable rights like free speech, freedom to worship, Freedom from self incrimination?
Questions that apply to all the other points you raised.
Where does it end?
Where all tyranny ends?
At the hands of patriots.
Don’t women already COLLECT a fee?? Afterall they STILL expect guys, to pay for their stuff, buy them expensive gifts etc…
Liability insurance is an ongoing expense to mitigate one’s financial risk when you cause harm to someone, and it is your fault. Mere ownership of a firearm causes harm to NO ONE. This should never stand up in court, but then it is kalifornication.
Just how many ways can one Democrat run California government entity create, to drive sane productive people from their lands, which soon will make the whole state as productive as Death Valley? A better idea would be to require all government employees to buy insurance to cover the losses to the taxpayers in Democrat government incompetency, failed social experiments and outright social theft in government kickbacks.
“gun-related homicides, suicides and other shootings cost San Jose around $63 million annually”,,,,and saved the taxpayers much more in the cost of incarcerations, free legal representation, Covid and social disease spread, welfare, drug rehabilitations, psychological rehabs and counseling, and the feeding, medicating and housing of social parasites who bring nothing to the San Jose table but voracious appetites. Just call it Mother Nature’s way of culling out the socially failed who when they run out of productive people to feed upon, turn on and feed upon themselves.
I can’t wait till someone SUES THIS As being unconstitutional!
It never ceases to amaze me how Dims can violate peoples rights & stick it to law abiding citizens,court battle better be on horizon! Mo money for Kali so they can fund $60k tent citys? No bail,no way,you go Kali! Another reason for no registration,cant tax what they arent aware of!
This is just another way for the corrupt Democrats to take citizen’s money, to rob you.
“Mayor Sam Liccardo praised the measures and
said gun owners who do not comply with the new rules shouldn’t have guns”…… Huh??
#1. Criminals DO NOT register their guns, they buy them on the black market or steal them and they don’t obey gun laws.
NOR can they come to confiscate it, if it’s not registered!
If you have to shoot someone in self defense and they don’t make it, your insurance company will have to pay a settlement. Once the insurance becomes unaffordable, then you will likewise be unable to defend yourself—it will have become too costly.
iMO that is WHY LEFTISTS are pushing this nonsense. THEY WANT US unable to defend ourselves..
It is not constitutional for government to charge citizens for using a fundamental right that is protected, not granted, by the Constitution. Otherwise, poll taxes would be constitutional. Citizens can be charged user fees when government facilitates the exercise of rights. For example, a publicly owned bridge may charge a toll. The unlimited power to tax is the power to destroy (S.C. 1819) and any right can be regulated out of existence. The same logic San Jose is using can hold the owners of any sort of property responsible for its misuse by others. Guns are property specifically named in the Constitution to be protected because the framers knew that tyrants targeted them. Another tyrannical method is to destroy the rights of the producers and distributors of property.
SINCE the dems HATE the constitution, WHY DO YOU think they would care IF what they are doing IS or isn;t constitutional?
AND SINCE THE LEFT OWNS the courts out there, they won’t fear THEM slapping them down.
All all the people in power in CA complete idiots?
SINCE those who vote them in, are ALSO idiots, the answer is HELL YES.