Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Thirty-six years ago, I proposed that gun owners should be required to have liability insurance, in a New York Times opinion piece July 8, 1989, (I also proposed that gun owners pass written and physical competency tests like we require of auto drivers.) Guns, like cars, are exceptionally dangerous instrumentalities. More deaths in the United States take place from gun violence than on our roads. For example, in 2023, 46,728 people died from gun violence, while 40,990 died from vehicle accidents. (Center for Disease Control data and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.)
Every state in the United States requires mandatory liability insurance for automobile and truck owners. Now the time has come to require gun owners to buy insurance in the event that their weapons cause damage to persons or property. If your gun is stolen and used to kill someone, you may be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages or more.
Finally, in 2022, the city of San Jose, California, passed a law that requires gun owners to purchase and maintain liability insurance. Later that same year, the State of New Jersey passed a law mandating liability insurance for gun owners. Both laws were challenged in the courts. A federal court in California ruled that the San Jose law was constitutional and did not interfere with the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. However, a federal court in New Jersey ruled that the New Jersey law was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. That case was argued before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals before two liberal jurists and one conservative one. A decision is expected in the near future.
The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 by a group of students from Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School with the aim of challenging liberal or left-wing ideology within elite American law schools and universities. The Federalist Society noted that “statutes requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance could be written in a way that would not violate the Second Amendment…”
Members of the Federalist Society have forcefully argued against regulations on guns. The Federalist Society has argued that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals to guns, as opposed to being a collective right to arms. At the time of the Federalist Society’s creation and since the 19th century, the Supreme Court and academics had held a more restrictive view of gun rights. The Federalist Society has been influential in shifting legal views on gun rights, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling District of Columbia v. Heller which struck down gun regulations in the District of Columbia that required guns to be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.”
The U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), provides members with self-defense liability insurance that covers damages defense expenses and bail costs. U.S. Law Shield offers legal defense for self-defense, which it distinguishes from standard gun owner’s liability insurance. The National Police Defense Foundation works with an associated consulting group to offer customized firearms liability and concealed carry insurance for all armed services.
California has proposed a bill to mandate gun liability insurance, but it failed to pass. New York State has a proposed bill pending to require gun owners to purchase insurance. Senate Bill 5974, 2025-2026 session. Massachusetts has House Bill 2495 pending. South Carolina also has pending legislation to require liability insurance.
Mandatory gun liability insurance is one type of gun control that can get passed into law because many conservatives and liberals agree on it. It provides gun owners with peace of mind in case their guns are stolen and used to commit a crime. This legislation does not take guns away, it just makes gun owners more responsible. Insurance companies will charge higher rates for assault weapons and this will discourage ownership of these exceptionally dangerous weapons. This type of reasonable gun legislation is a good start for reducing outrageous gun violence in the United States.
Joel D. Joseph is a lawyer, an economist and author of 15 books, and published “NRA: Money, Firepower and Fear, the first exposé of the gun lobby, in 1992.”
