PA Bill Number: HB2311
Title: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program.
Description: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program. ...
Last Action: Laid on the table
Last Action Date: Sep 23, 2024
Congress Could Make A Devious Move To Control Americans' Guns In This New Way :: 06/03/2015
If one New York representative has her way, gun owners could soon be required to purchase liability insurance for exercising their Second Amendment rights.
As The Hill’s Lydia Wheeler reported, Democrat U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (pictured above) last week introduced the Firearm Risk Protection Act, a bill that would implement fines of up to $10,000 for any gun owner – aside from members of the military or law enforcement agency – caught owning a firearm without proper insurance.
“We require insurance to own a car,” Maloney asserted, “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.”
Several years ago, The Truth About Guns published an article debunking the “misleading and irrelevant” practice of comparing car and gun fatalities. Writer Bruce W. Krafft explained that including gun-related suicide – and to a large extent, homicide – in such statistics skews the results, considering someone truly motivated to perform such violent acts would not be dissuaded due to an absence of guns.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the murder rate hit a recent peak in the early 1990s, a period marked by far stricter right-to-carry laws. Finally, he noted that this comparison ignores claims that gun use saves twice as many lives as it claims.
One reader reacted to The Hill’s article by dismantling what many see as the central distinction between requiring auto insurance and firearm insurance.
“Mandatory auto insurance has always been justified on the premise that driving is a privilege not a right,” the individual wrote. “Keeping and bearing arms is a right. Imposing fees on gun ownership is no different than a pole [sic] tax imposed on the ‘right’ to vote.”
Nevertheless, Maloney said she feels her proposal would cause gun owners to use their weapons more responsibly.
“An insurance requirement would allow the free market to encourage cautious behavior and help save lives,” she claimed. “Adequate liability coverage would also ensure that the victims of gun violence are fairly compensated when crimes or accidents occur.”
