The city of San Jose on Tuesday voted to pass a law that would compel gun owners to take out insurance to cover any damage caused by their weapon, a move that its mayor said is the first of its kind in the US.
The plan, voted on by the city council, would also require weapons owners in the Californian city to pay an annual fee that would fund a non-profit group to help victims of gun violence.
“Tonight, San Jose became the first city in the United States to enact an ordinance to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance, and to invest funds generated from fees paid by gun owners into an evidence-based initiative to reduce gun violence and gun harm,” Mayor Sam Liccardo wrote on Twitter.
The proposed ordinance, which must pass a second reading on Feb. 8 before it becomes law in August, is also intended to cut down the costs to taxpayers.
“We have seen how insurance has reduced auto fatalities over several decades, for example, by incentivizing safer driving, and the purchase of cars equipped with airbags and antilock brakes,” Liccardo said ahead of the vote.
“Similarly, gun liability insurance available today on the market can adjust premiums to encourage gun owners to use gun safes, install trigger locks and take gun safety classes,” he added.
Firearms are prevalent in the US, where about 40 percent of adults live in a gun-owning household, the Pew Research Center said.
Almost 23 million firearms were sold across the country in 2020 and 40,000 people die from gunshots annually.
Despite the toll and the fact that most Americans favor tightening gun control rules, attempts to limit gun ownership have failed, with opponents saying that controls are an infringement of individual liberties.
A news release from the San Jose City Council said that gun violence costs the city nearly US$40 million per year, including for emergency police and medical response, healthcare and investigations.
“While the second amendment protects every citizen’s right to own a gun, it does not require taxpayers to subsidize that right,” Liccardo said.
The US$25 annual fee would help to fund programs aimed at reducing gun violence, as well as mental health counseling and addiction treatment.
Ahead of the vote, the National Foundation for Gun Rights, an advocacy group, described the proposed law as “a blatantly unconstitutional scheme.”
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS