Gun Liability Insurance

Revolver

This idea just occurred to me. I don't know if it's a good idea or a bad one. I am sure that most everyone will object to it. Whatever. Here goes.

How about we require everyone who carries a gun to carry a large liability policy, like, I dunno, a million dollars or so. Of course many people have guns at home and do not normally carry them, but since they have them in their possession they easily could pick them up and carry them. So everyone who has a gun would need one of these policies.

Now people of the gun will object that it infringes on "their right to bear arms", and enforcing a  requirement that all gun owners obtain such a policy would be an invasion of privacy.

Making it an absolute requirement that all gun owners carry such liability insurance would never fly. But we could start by making it a requirement that you need to show proof of such insurance in order to buy a gun or ammunition. It's pretty much universal that you need to have insurance in order to operate a motor vehicle, so requiring insurance for certain activities is nothing new.

Now people are going to object to the government keeping records of all the gun and ammunition sales, but it doesn't need to be like that. The government has made it a legal requirement that you need to demonstrate that you are of age in order to buy liquor, but the government doesn't keep track of all those transactions.

But where is this insurance going to come from? From insurance companies, presumably, certainly not from the Federal government.

Now the rates might be kind of high to start with, but as more people acquire policies, the rates should drop. Given that there are a zillion gun owners in the USA, and given the small number of incidents where a previously solid citizen goes off the deep end and kills someone, insurance shouldn't cost the individual gun owner more than about ten dollars a year.

It would be up to the insurance companies to vet the applicant. Some insurance companies may discriminate against some people for any number of reasons, and you really couldn't blame them. They are signing up to be on the hook for a million smackolas if Johnny Q. Customer decides to go round the bend. But insurance is a private business, not a government thing, so there might be other companies that would be willing to insure Johnny Q.

Hopefully, by putting insurance companies in charge of deciding who is qualified to carry a firearm could reduce the number of nut cases who can obtain guns. And if they do, and they do run amok, well, at least the victims will get some compensation.

It would probably be ten years or so before such a policy started making an impact.

Yup, I'm late to the party San Jose passed a law back in January. As expected, some people are contesting it. If it passes the challenges, the law is supposed take effect in August.