San Jose passes gun control measure that requires legal firearm owners to compensate taxpayers for gun violence

San Jose, California recently passed a law ordering gun owners to have both liability insurance, and also pay a yearly fee towards police and emergency services who attend to gun-related violence. While ABC7’s reporting called it a first for the state, The San Francisco Chronicle described it as the first "in the nation."

With that said it’s going to continue to be an experiment as officials try to properly calculate the costs these new requirements will entail per person. Without a gun registry or tracking on a per-owner basis, implementation methods are still yet to be determined.

"We've got to do more to ensure that burdens are property borne by those who choose to exercise their right to own a gun and to ensure that those fees and insurance requirements will incentivize safer gun ownership," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

The Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation (PIRE) said in a preliminary report that gun homicides/suicides and other shooting incidents cost the city of San Jose almost $442 million a year. The San Jose City Council put out a press release with the preliminary research from PIRE that looked at the statistics of firearm injuries between 2013 and 2019. The fees for the new law passed by the city will be determined by a "more thorough" study anticipated to be released in the fall of 2021.

Councilwoman Maya Esparza voiced concerns about these new measures laying the groundwork for potential warrantless searches on gun owners, describing it as a "giant red flag." While Mayor Liccardo affirmed that violators would indeed have their weapons taken from them, police officers will also steer clear of crossing regulatory lines.

The passage of the legislation comes in the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. In late May of this year, 57-year-old Samuel J. Cassidy set his house on fire, then went to VTA Guadalupe Division yard shooting and killing nine people, plus himself.