Starting in January, all gun owners in San Jose, California, must have insurance that covers firearm harm or accidental firings, the first law of its kind in the US, which seeks to reduce gun incidents by mandating liability insurance and collecting an annual fee from gun owners.
The annual fees would be used to fund programs that address suicide prevention, mental health and addiction services, and firearm-safety training or victim compensation.
The city is still designing plans to collect the annual fee, which is tentatively set for $25. San Jose will start collecting once the city selects a nonprofit to manage the money.
A San Jose resident”s liability insurance policy must cover losses or damages resulting from the accidental use of a firearm including but not limited to death, injury or property damage. There is no mandatory minimum coverage. The form must always be with the firearm as proof of compliance. If a firearm is discovered without the form, it will trigger a police report and could result in administrative citations, with fees starting at $250.
The only gun owners who are exempt from the insurance requirement are police officers and those with concealed carry permits, according to city documents. Low-income gun owners may apply for a waiver.
Mayor Sam Liccardo designed the policy.
“Gun insurance incentivizes safer behavior,” he told San Jose Spotlight. “Just as drivers with auto insurance received discounts on their premiums for having safe driving records in the 1990s, getting a car with anti-lock brakes, or in the 1980s getting a car with air bags, so too insurance can incentivize gun owners to take gun safety classes, ensure their guns have chamber-load indicators, purchase gun safes and get trigger locks.”
More than 200 people are killed or injured annually by gunfire in San Jose. Fatal and non-fatal firearm shootings of San Jose residents cost $995 million in 2019-20, Liccardo said.
“There should be little burden for gun owners, as most home and renters’ insurance policies already cover what is required by the law, or else a rider can be acquired by the policyholder at no or little cost,” Liccardo said. “Gun owners will simply need to confirm they have such insurance.”
Implementation of the ordinance was delayed as the city dealt with multiple lawsuits from gun rights activists and taxpayer associations.
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said his organization and a coalition of Second Amendment advocates plan to sue the city once the law is implemented. They claim the policy violates their right to bear arms by placing barriers and mandating that gun owners pay to use that right. He also said he believes the gun insurance will have “zero impact” on reducing gun violence.
“This law is just not going to prevent criminal misuse,” Paredes said. “What it will do is make it a little more difficult and cumbersome for some of the people in lower income areas of San Jose — those people who live where crime happens more regularly — to own a gun.”
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.