Democrats Push to Require Liability Insurance to Buy Guns

Democrats in four states are pushing to require law-abiding gun buyers to acquire liability insurance before being allowed to purchase a firearm.

Those pushing the mandate are Hawaiian state Senator Josh Green (D-Dist. 3), New Hampshire state Representative  Katherine Rogers (D-Dist. 28), New York City Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn), and Los Angeles County Democrat Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas.

All four Democrats want would-be gun owners to acquire liability insurance for gun ownership in the same way car owners purchase insurance for their vehicles. The amount of insurance required would vary lawmaker to lawmaker, but the New York Daily News reports that Ortiz wants would-be gun owners to acquire $250,000 in liability insurance first.

According to AL.com, fines are also being proposed for those who acquire insurance to buy a gun, then drop the insurance once they have the gun in their possession. In Hawaii, a $10,000 fine is being proposed for gun owners who do not maintain liability insurance.

The lawmakers maintain that the proceeds from the insurance settlements “would go to offset costs associated with victims or public agencies impacted by gun violence.” This same argument has been used to pass a “violence tax” in Chicago and Seattle, only to see crime surge in Chicago thereafter.

Of course, adding the insurance premium to the price of a gun would quickly put guns out of the financial reach of many poor families and single mothers in troubled neighborhoods, whose first–and perhaps, only–line of defense is the gun they keep near the bed or in the closet.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.