A California city has passed the first-of-its-kind gun law that will require gun owners to purchase liability insurance and pay an annual fee on their weapons.
San Jose city council members voted to approve the new law, which requires gun owners to pay about $25 a year as well as administrative costs to the city. Gun owners also must pay for liability insurance, which covers losses or damages resulting from "any negligent or accidental use of the firearm," within six months of acquiring a weapon.
Around 50,000 to 55,000 households in the city own guns, meaning the city can expect to make about $1.3 million on the new fees, according to the San Jose Spotlight.
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Mayor Sam Liccardo thanked the council for approving the measure he introduced in 2019 after a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
"When we think about the horrible mass shootings, I don’t pretend to know that we could have stopped it or not," Liccardo said. "But if in fact, we could have delivered some mental health services, there may have been a chance."
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Liccardo said that San Jose has a chance to act as "a model for the rest of the nation to invest in proven strategies" to limit gun violence.
The new plan has no set deadline to go into effect, but opponents have already sought an injunction. The Firearm Policy Coalition says the law is "burdensome, unconstitutional, and prohibited by California law" for gun-owning citizens, ABC 7 reported.
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"Since San Jose's recalcitrant City Council members don't believe that the United States Constitution applies to them or their citizens, Firearms Policy Coalition and our members are now committed to fight the City's outrageous and offensive policies in federal litigation and take every possible action to block their enforcement," the group said.
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