California city approves law to require gun owners carry liability insurance

The San Jose City Council voted this week to approve legislation that would require gun owners to get liability insurance and pay a fee each year that would go toward responding to gun-related violence.

The annual fee would subsidize medical treatment, police responses and ambulances, among other expenses, related to shooting-related deaths and injuries, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

CBS Bay Area reported that any intentional harm caused by a gun owner would not be legally covered by the liability insurance. San Jose is the first city to pass these measures, the outlet noted. 

The unanimous vote on Tuesday came more than a month after a 57-year-old employee at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard shot and killed nine others before taking his own life.

According to the Chronicle, the city has not determined what the fee will be. The city is waiting on a final report by the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation before it determines a fee for gun owners.

A preliminary report by the institute said that gun violence in San Jose costs taxpayers around $63 million a year, according to the Chronicle.

The city’s mayor, Sam Liccardo (D), said on Wednesday it would likely be “a couple dozen dollars.” He also said that people who could not afford the fee would not be charged. 

“The Second Amendment certainly protects the right of every citizen to own a gun,” Liccardo told reporters, according to the Chronicle. “It does not mandate that taxpayers subsidize that right.”

According to the newspaper, gun owners cannot be contacted directly by the city to comply with the measures because San Jose has no formal gun registry. Instead, it would fall on the gun owners to learn the new rules and comply, or risk getting their weapons confiscated. 

The move is already facing a possible court challenge by the Sacramento-based Firearms Policy Coalition, the Chronicle reported. The group argues that both measures violate gun owners’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

The San Jose Spotlight reported that California lawmakers will also give $20 million to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to aid in resuming light rail service, improve safety upgrades and give mental health resources to employees and families following the May shooting.