The nation’s largest state ceaselessly provides solutions to non-existent gun problems. This time, the state of California wants to require all homeowners who have the audacity to own firearms to register them with their insurance provider.
NEW: California bill would force home owners and renters to report the number of guns they own to insurance companies and the government.
California couldn’t care less about retail theft, child mutilation, infanticide, or illegals breaking into America, but it feels entitled to…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 18, 2024
Bill AB-3067 introduced by Democrat Assemblyman Mike Gipson would require insurers to “update the contents of their applications for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance to include the questions regarding the presence, storage, and number of firearms by January 1, 2026.”
Insurers would then be required to “annually report the information gathered from the questions regarding the presence, storage, and number of firearms to the Department of Insurance and the Legislature beginning on January 1, 2027.”
That sounds very much like gun registration.
However, California lawmakers know that one can never have too many gun laws. That’s why anti-gun crusader State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D) has also introduced SB 1160, which would create a gun registration database. Gun owners would be required to register all their firearms annually and pay a fee.
The bill doesn’t specify what the fee would be — only that the fee would cover the “cost” of the program. There is no indication if the database — along with the aforementioned insurance registration data — would be managed by California’s Department of Redundancy Department.
Senator Portantino’s track record for passing gun laws is impressive – even for one of the most left-leaning state legislatures in America. He was instrumental in the passage of laws restricting where concealed weapons can be carried, raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, and limiting the number of firearms non-dealers can sell.
However, California’s recent track record with passing gun laws that do not violate the United States Constitution is not as stellar. Both its ban on high-capacity magazines and its severe restrictions on concealed weapons were struck down in federal court in the past several months. Its ban on firearms advertising was struck down even by the historical leftist U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In his opinion rejecting the high-capacity magazine law, US District Court Judge Roger Benitez said: “The history and tradition of the Second Amendment clearly support state laws against the use or misuse of firearms with unlawful intent, but not the disarmament of the law-abiding citizen.”
This statement of common sense may come as a shock to many. Namely, a judge recognizes that laws must restrict actual criminal behavior — not mere possession of weapons for lawful purposes. The Second Amendment guarantees this — even if the Left Coast state despises it.
Benitez is an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush.
