Last week, two state senators introduced amended legislation to require such insurance for the negligent or accidental discharge of a gun.
The amended Senate Bill 8 was introduced by Sens. Nancy Skinner, of Oakland and Catherine Blakespear, of Encinitas – both Democrats – following the mass shootings across the state in January.
In a statement, Skinner said: "Victims of gun violence and their families suffer severe harm -- economic, mental and physical -- but have little to no recourse to be compensated for that harm."
Skinner added that “requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance puts the burden where it should be -- on the gun owner."
If SB 8 becomes law, California would be the first state in the nation to enact such a legal requirement.
San Jose has a gun insurance law, the first such law in the nation. SB 8 will be modeled after San Jose law, which went into effect at the beginning of this year.
Statewide, 31 people have died this month in mass shootings that have occurred in Oakland, Half Moon Bay, Monterey Park and among others Goshen, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks the numbers. Twenty-four more people were injured in those shootings, according to the same source.
