San Jose recently approved a plan to reduce gun violence. Mayor Sam Liccardo met with President Joe Biden and other officials at the White House, Monday, to discuss how the same can be done nationally.
San Jose’s City Council approved several gun harm reduction proposals at the end of June. They include: a mandate for gun insurance; impounding guns from those who do not comply with insurance mandates and other laws; and recording all gun purchases.
Mayor Liccardo likens gun insurance to auto insurance. He says that was effective in reducing per-mile car accidents by 80 percent in four decades. He also says insurance would reduce the public cost of gun violence, which in San Jose costs taxpayers nearly half-a-billion dollars annually, according to early data from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation.
Liccardo first proposed the measures after the 2019 Garlic Festival Shooting in the neighboring city of Gilroy. He reintroduced them this year weeks after the Bay Area's deadliest mass shooting, which claimed nine lives in San Jose at the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority yard in May.
The council approved the proposals last month, directing the city attorney to draft an ordinance that will come back for a final vote in September.
