In the Feb. 5-6 paper, Trish Zornio says Colorado should follow San Jose on gun liability insurance. That sounds good if it’s as simple as paying for an insurance policy if my gun causes any damages, injuries or death.
Zornio points out that San Jose pays $40 million for emergency services related to gun violence.
But an insurance policy will not pay for a gun used to commit a crime. This is also true of car insurance. You can’t use your car to commit a crime and expect your insurance to cover the costs.
Nor would insurance pay for suicides, which comprise the majority of all gun deaths. Most acts of gun violence involve criminal or intentionally wrongful acts that would not be covered by insurance.
So is this California law simply insurance coverage if my gun causes harm to a third party? No, this law has a “Gun Harm Reduction Fee” that is paid by all gun owners even safe, law-abiding gun owners. It’s like getting a letter from your car insurance company saying a drunken driver plowed into a crowd of people therefore your insurance must go up.
This gun law treats all law-abiding gun owners as the cause of the problem and does nothing to recover the costs incurred by the criminals.
Dave Norman
Durango
