Following San Jose, the California Senate considers a bill to mandate gun owners buy liability insurance for accidental or negligent gun discharge. SB 8 aims to shift the burden of compensation for gun violence harm onto gun owners. San Jose’s law, the first in the nation, went into effect this year. State Senators Nancy Skinner and Catherine Blakespear, both from California, introduced the bill after multiple mass shootings this January.
31 people died and 24 others were injured in mass shootings in Oakland, Half Moon Bay, Monterey Park, and Goshen this month, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The insurance plan, similar to car insurance, would make gun owners liable for injury, death, or property damage caused by their gun. Gun owners must carry proof of insurance, to show law enforcement if asked. Portantino, a California senator, will co-author the latest version of SB 8.
California has more than 100 gun laws, some of which are the strictest in the United States. These laws include background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, a requirement for a Handgun Safety Certificate for all handgun purchases, a ban on assault weapons, and a limit on large-capacity magazines. There is also a roster of certified handguns, and the Gun-Free School Zone Act is in place. Furthermore, firearms owners are required to report lost or stolen firearms within 5 days. Despite the existence of these dozens of laws, they did not stop two mass shootings this month.
The weapon used by Monterey Park shooter, a Cobray M-11/9 semiautomatic pistol, is illegal to purchase or sell in the state. California’s definition of an “assault weapon” includes firearms such as the one used in Monterey Park that have a threaded barrel, illegal suppressor, and the ability to accept a detachable magazine.
This highlights the need for continued enforcement and implementation of existing gun laws to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future. For example, the state’s net does not force gun owners to relinquish banned weapons, it cannot remove guns from people who may have exhibited dangerous behavior, and it must deal with illegal guns and firearms from neighboring states.
These limitations are offering a lesson in the limits of state power to prevent gun violence even with political will at all levels of the state government. Recent Supreme Court decisions have also thrown California’s key laws into question, and the recent shootings have shown the difficulty of balancing safety and liberty through state law. The Court rejected a request from firearms dealers in New York to block recent state laws that they argued violated their Second Amendment rights.
The legislature is now examining the possibility of implementing a statewide requirement for gun insurance, similar to the one already in place in San Jose. This means that if the proposal is approved, all gun owners across the state would be required to purchase insurance coverage for their firearms, as a way to help cover costs related to gun violence. This includes damages or injuries caused by the use of the gun, regardless of whether it was accidental or intentional. The idea behind this requirement is to shift some of the financial burden from taxpayers to gun owners and to encourage responsible gun ownership.
In 2023, California had the second highest number of registered guns in the US with 344,622, behind Texas with 588,696. With a population of 40,223,504, California had the largest population of all the states listed. The number of registered guns per capita in California was lower compared to states like Wyoming (132,806) and Vermont (5,872).
