We need a system of required insurance as a tool to fight the tide of gun violence in this country. The insurance has to be adapted to the needs of the situation, as insurance is in almost every area. It needs to be real insurance to compensate the people who get shot and their families. Insurance designed just to hold gun owners and shooters responsible won’t cut it.
The time has come legislate such a system. There are some principles which would cause the system to work on a practical level, reduce the carnage and mitigate the damages. They include:
Direct payment to the injured persons, their families and medical providers.
Insurance that pays on the basis of the injury not fault by the shooter
We need compulsory gun insurance for all guns that compensates anyone injured by shooting
Over 40,000 people a year are killed by guns. More than by cars or on the job, but these activities have insurance now. Current voluntary insurance just protects gun owners and pays for lawyers to block victim lawsuits. We need good insurance that pays to victims, avoids the need for lawsuits, and covers all guns. This will encourage a culture of safety for society as a whole and for each gun owner. Insurers will demand good practices.
Vehicle owners and employers are now required to have insurance, it has not stopped the development of these activities, but it has greatly mitigated the inherent risks. We need to do this for guns now.
The first local laws have been
passed to require gun insurance. These are for liability insurance
requiring fault by the gun owner or shooter and certainly don’t pay directly to
victims or cover all guns. But this is a
start on a path that as it evolves will give good protection and promote
safety.
The
first gun insurance requirements have been passed into law in the United
States. Let us celebrate the beginnings
of a culture of responsibility around firearms.
Two separate jurisdictions at opposite ends of the country have launched
on this long awaited return to sanity.
This video looks at the new gun insurance laws in California
and New Jersey. What they cover, where
they came from and where they’re going.
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The
first local laws to require insurance for gun owners will go into effect in 2023. They have been passed and signed into law by
the Mayor of San Jose, California and the Governor of New Jersey.
San Jose requires gun permits but exempts those who have
concealed carry permits, New Jersey’s new law only applies to those with
concealed-carry permits.
You can
see from this that it is only a step toward the insurance we need. These laws take great care to avoid various
kinds of potential interference with gun ownership. The exceptions limit the usefulness and
protection of the insurance, BUT this care proves that the objections of gun
proponents are misguided. As we learn
from the new laws, we’ll find ways to make the insurance more effective.
Insurance can be tailored to the requirements of a
specific risky activity. This is why
it’s a powerful tool both to allow the activity and to mitigate the harm that
results.
We need
insurance that pays benefits to victims, applies without excessive delay and
litigation, and which covers all guns. This
current baby step is important but it will need to followed by more steps that
lead to the goals.
The
ordinance in San Jose takes effect in January.
The Mayor, Sam Liccardo, thanked
those who helped pass the ordinance and
“the many others who work tirelessly to help craft a constitutionally compliant
path to mitigate the unnecessary suffering from gun harm in our community.” The ordinance only covers accidents
that involve firearms. The city plan
envisions that homeowner’s insurance will handle most cases with minimal
changes. That is, no-doubt, the reason
excluding intentional shootings.
Most homeowner’s policies have this exclusion and it would
be a major disruption for insurers to require it to change. Another factor is that there is no specific
loss limit required, this would allow existing insurance to apply regardless of
its limits.
San
Jose’s requirement does not apply to peace officers. That is not unusual as police, even retired
police, have been exempted from many gun laws.
Also exempted are holders of
concealed carry permits. Both exemptions are somewhat illogical as the law
isn’t aimed at preventing anyone from having a gun and it applies only to
accidents.
While
the new ordinance in San Jose was passed in February 2022, its implementation
was delayed by lawsuits from gun supporters.
Most of these have been dismissed and the law is to take effect. Additional lawsuits are expected.
The new
law in New Jersey on the other hand covers those who have
concealed-carry permits. It was enacted
in December 2022 and will take effect in July ‘23. When he signed the bill Governor Phil Murphy
said:
“today’s law fully
respects the Second Amendment while keeping guns out of the wrong hands and
preventing them from proliferating in our communities.”
As expected, lawsuits were immediately filed by gun
proponents.
New Jersey previously had a restrictive law allowing
concealed-carry permits. That law was
struck down by the US Supreme Court. Before
in 2021 there were 870 concealed-carry applications, but the number is now expected
to rise to about 11,000. The insurance
requirement is part of a new package which governs concealed carry in
accordance with this decision.
Applicants for permits will have to demonstrate insurance compliance.
It calls for liability insurance
and would only apply if the gun carrier is at fault. The required insurance limit is
$300,000.00 The governor’s statements
show that he contemplates that homeowner’s insurance can meet the requirements;
but, given the many limitations in typical policies, this will be complex.
These two new laws will launch a
process that will require a substantial time to complete. In addition to the inevitable court battles,
there will be bills introduced and debated in other legislative bodies. This process has happened in other areas
before.
For example, requirements for
insurance for cars started in the early 1930’s and were not fully developed
until the 1960’s. In that case, the
first laws in many states were “financial responsibility laws” which only
required insurance for people who had already been unable to pay for the
consequences of car accidents. While the
insurance industry has often claimed that a new requirement can’t be
implemented, they have historically been able to adapt to whatever is
needed. They will do that now.
Both of the laws assume that
most cases will be handled by some extension of homeowners insurance. As gun insurance matures and adapts to the
needs of supporting victims and providing gun safety, homeowners insurance may
continue to play an important part. The
terms will need to be specifically defined to give coverage of all the
possibilities and to allow the insurer to be protected from particularly
dangerous persons and weapons. In the
less dangerous cases, it should not raise costs greatly. There will be many situations outside the
willingness of home insurance carriers to absorb the risks, and in these cases
special insurance will need to be developed and priced.
Requiring
insurance need not interfere with the safe use of an insured activity or thing. We continue to drive with an insurance
requirement, we work at jobs with workers compensation and we require insurance
for many commercial activities. In all
of these cases the protection provided by the insurance mitigates the risks and
reduces the need for tight regulation.
Insurance is both a means and a symbol of responsibility. We need responsibility around firearms if we
are to allow their existence and reduce their dangers.
The laws and regulations we use for gun safety in our country have provided only limited relief from the high level of gun injury and death. While they need to be extended and improved, other ways of protecting people are also important. One that would be extremely helpful is to require insurance that protects victims of gun violence.
Laws and Regulations
For decades there has been a war between those who want reasonable regulation of gun ownership and use and those who feel that any restrictions applied to guns are the start of a slippery slope leading to total gun confiscation. The result has been a patchwork that provides substantial impediments to responsible gun ownership as the pool of irresponsible owners and dangerous guns has increased exponentially.
The most important characteristic of the insurance needed for owning or carrying firearms is the basic structure of who is protected and paid by the insurance. Voluntary insurance is always designed to protect the insurance buyer or owner first and pays third party victims only when necessary to protect the policy holder. Required or mandatory insurance is intended to protect the public and persons other than the policy holder, and should promptly pay insured persons.
Ideally, we should adopt a system of insurance that protects and compensates all of the victims of gun violence as a single well thought-out package. The various terms would weight the balance between minimizing the interference with responsible peoples use of firearms and the need to keep them away from irresponsible people. There are many factors that should work together to give the best overall results. But, that isn’t the way that most systems of control and regulation are developed. They come about incrementally. Even before we adopt any requirements for ordinary gun owners and users to be covered by insurance, there are are changes that could set the state. Insurance is a means of maintaining a system and culture of responsibility. Keeping and use of firearms, unlike any other activity in our society, has accrued a large number of provisions, legal and of other kinds, to promote a culture of irresponsibility. If this is rolled back in stages, use of insurance will emerge as a natural step. It will be so because it will be a way of facilitating the responsible use of firearms in a context of demanded responsibility.
One of the main feeders into the pool of illegal guns that cause a large portion of the deaths and injuries is those guns that are obtained through straw purchases. A straw purchase is one that is done by a person with a clean record that can pass a background check to obtain a gun for a prohibited person. For the purposes of this writing straw purchases are distinguished from other channels for guns to enter dangerous hands including:
Unchecked sales or gifts after the initial purchase
Theft of guns
Previously owned guns by persons who subsequently become prohibited persons
Guns used by persons who are not prohibited from having guns but who are clearly dangerous in hindsight
Straw purchases are the primary input to the “Iron Pipeline” which is the name that New York gives to the practice of buying guns in low regulation states such as Virginia and illegally smuggling them into New York for sale to prohibited persons. The hate killing by a white supremacist in Kansas City in April, 2014 was with a straw purchased weapon.
This post is a good place to start if you’re new to this blog. Scan the questions and follow the ‘Related:’ link(s) if you have an interest in a particular area.
Q: What is the purpose of mandating gun insurance?
Required insurance for guns or gun owners should be designed to provide benefits for victims of gun accidents or violence. Insurers will automatically take appropriate steps to encourage gun safety as part of their loss control and underwriting activities.
Q: What specifically would be the best insurance system for guns?
Each state should adopt a system of no-fault insurance with a system of delivering medical and cash benefits directly to victims. This insurance should be required to be in place for any firearm brought into or kept in the state in order for that firearm to be legal. It should provide all of the benefits available to victims of motor vehicle or workplace injuries.
The purpose of having insurance for victims of gun violence is to provide money for the many needs they have after they suffer from a shooting. The insurance should be structured to pay in the various situations that occur, for the various needs that are faced and in a timely manner. There are lots of kinds of insurance in use today and several ones will be examined in the chapters that follow. Starting with the most basic insurance designed only to protect the buyer of the insurance, we will add features until we see that it is possible to create a system that works to provide the needed protection. We’ll start with the simplest in the progression. Continue reading →
