The San Jose City Council approved a law on Tuesday requiring residents to have insurance coverage for their firearms, a first-in-the-nation ordinance aimed at reducing the financial burden gun violence places on taxpayers.
“Lower premiums for those with gun safes, trigger locks and completed gun safety classes are expected to incentivize safer behavior,” CNN reports.
The law, which must be approved next month at its final reading before being enacted in August, also imposes a $25 annual fee on gun owners. The proceeds would be used “to invest in evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun harm,” according to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
“While the Second Amendment protects every citizen’s right to own a gun, it does not require taxpayers to subsidize that right,” Liccardo said in a statement. He estimated that his California city incurs approximately $442 million in gun-related costs every year.
CNN provides context:
Mass shootings impelled Liccardo to push the fee and insurance initiatives — first after the 2019 slayings at a festival in nearby Gilroy, California, then following last year’s deadly siege at public transit facility in his city. The mayor has compared the plan to car insurance mandates, which he credits with dramatically reducing traffic fatalities.
Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights and executive director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, told CNN “we’ve opposed this ordinance every step of the way and we will see this through to the end.”
He added, “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.”
