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Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., is one of the most anti-gun members of Congress.
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill that would force gun owners to have liability insurance or face fines of up to $10,000.
According to Maloney. the Firearms Risk Protection Act would curb so-called “gun violence,” much like car insurance has lowered vehicle fatalities, she said, because gun owners would be more careful.
In a statement to the Hill, Maloney said:
“We require insurance to own a car, but no such requirement exists for guns. The results are clear: car fatalities have declined by 25 percent in the last decade, but gun fatalities continue to rise.”
Maloney said auto insurance carriers incentivize drivers to take precautions to reduce accidents, but no such incentives exist for firearm owners. She wants to change that.
“An insurance requirement would allow the free market to encourage cautious behavior and help save lives,” she said. “Adequate liability coverage would also ensure that the victims of gun violence are fairly compensated when crimes or accidents occur.”
This is the second time Maloney, who is one of the biggest gun control advocates in Congress, has introduced the legislation, according to the Hill. A few weeks ago she reintroduced legislation that would require sellers to obtain a background check for all guns sold at gun shows.
The Gun Show Loophole Closing Act, long championed by former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., would subject anyone selling or transferring a gun to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and require that transfers be reported to the attorney general.
Second Amendment advocates said the proposal sounds like a money-maker for insurance companies and lawyers while throwing law-abiding gun owners under the bus.
Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America
“If it were constitutional, which it is not, to require gun owners to buy liability insurance before they can own a gun, then politicians who support this kind of legislation should be required to buy liability insurance before they open their mouths and/or push legislation,” said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “If any in the media support this, then they should also be asked to buy liability insurance.”
Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, said this isn’t the first time this idea has been floated.
“From time to time this proposal has been floated in various states,” he said. “Sometimes it has been supported by insurance company lobbyists as they could profit from the premiums.”
But the real intent, besides shoveling a windfall of cash to the insurance industry, is to make gun ownership more cost prohibitive for more people, Gottlieb said.
Alan Gottlieb is founder of the SAF.
“This is just one more infringement on Second Amendment rights that the gun prohibition lobby is pushing to make gun ownership more expensive so that less people can exercise their constitutional civil rights,” he said.
Mac Slavo, a blogger who writes on gun issues at SHTFPlan.com, brought further perspective to the issue of “incentivizing” gun safety.
“Rather than liability insurance to lower the rate of fatalities from criminal gun usage, Congress should look to the car industry for solutions. Improving the safety of citizens, for example, could be accomplished by giving them free access to body armor, as opposed to the nationwide ban proposed earlier this year,” Slavo writes.
“But that would just make too much sense. So, akin to stopping global warming with increased taxes and carbon credits, which do nothing but enrich carbon exchange management firms operated by people like climate change spokesperson and Internet-creator Al Gore, if you are a politician, especially in the liberal state of New York, the only possible solution would be to make people pay more money for the privilege of providing for their own personal defense.”
Slavo says the likelihood that insurance policies are responsible for the 25 percent drop in car fatalities is almost zero. “Rather, as noted by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety and people with even a smidgen of common sense, it’s probably more likely that improved vehicle design and safety features are responsible for the large decrease:
“They found that vehicle changes — including improved structural designs, the addition of safety features and an evolving mix of vehicle types — were the main source of declining risk from 1993 through 2006.”
To suggest that gun owners are not already incentivized to be responsible with their firearms is “ridiculous on its face,” Slavo writes, “considering there are hundreds of laws on the books designed specifically for people who commit murder or even accidental manslaughter. The legal mechanisms for those acting criminally or negligently with a firearm already exist. If you kill or injure someone with malicious intent or by accident you face prison time and/or financial damages to be seized from your personal wealth to compensate victims.”
At every turn and on every level anti-gun politicians are desperately trying to supplant the U.S. Constitution, Slavo said. “They will use any excuse and take every opportunity – including but not limited to restrictions on popular ammunition and all out import bans on guns – in their effort to disarm the American people.”
U.S. rep.: Force gun owners to 'buy insurance or pay fine'
Leo Hohmann
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 01:25:55 GMT
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