California state senators Catherine Blakespear and Nancy Skinner introduced a bill to require gun owners to carry liability insurance on their guns.
After the the recent mass shootings in Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay, Goshen, Oakland, and other California communities, lawmakers are looking for answers to gun violence that allow gun owners to keep their guns while putting the onus on them to make sure the community is safe.
“Under current laws, gun violence victims and society at large are the ones who suffer the cost of gun violence,” said Blakespear. Currently, victims are compensated by the government for some expenses such as burial expenses through the Crime Victims Compensation (CVC) program in each state.
She continued, “This needs to change. Firearms are similar to cars in that they are inherently dangerous and are in wide circulation. If a car accidentally causes injury to a person or property, the insurance policy will compensate the victim. The same approach should apply to injuries caused by guns.”
Senator Skinner noted that “victims of both gun violence and gun accidents and their families suffer severe harm — economic, mental and physical — but currently have little to no recourse to be compensated for that harm.”
They do, but it’s not really anywhere near what should be paid. Lost wages, lost income, lost family, grief that never ends. These are the things that aren’t compensated. As a surviving family member of a victim of random gun violence, I can see where some compensation to my family for lost wages would have at least been something.
“Requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance puts the burden where it should be — on the gun owner,” Skinner added. Amen, Senator. Amen.
This is the way. Insure the guns, insure the bullets, and make it something that makes people with guns think — and act more rationally.
The only hole I see in this is with existing gun owners with unregistered weapons. There may have to be some form of uninsured shooter coverage, similar to the uninsured motorist coverage in car insurance policies.
Still, this is definitely a big step toward making gun ownership more responsible, since we see every day that responsible gun owners…aren’t.
