Can Mandatory Liability Insurance for Gun Owners Reduce Violence?

The idea has been floated for years, and it may seem straightforward enough: if gun owners were required to purchase liability insurance, proponents argue, they would have to follow safe practices to limit their financial and legal risk, thus reducing incidents of gun violence.

But as New Jersey and the city of San Jose, California, have found, actually implementing the idea can be quite difficult.

A recently enacted gun control law in New Jersey that among other things required gun carriers to purchase mandatory liability insurance was scheduled to go into effect on July 1, until it was blocked by U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb.

Bumb, citing the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision on gun carry permits, ruled that parts of the law went too far and infringed on the right to bear arms. "The insurance mandate does regulate who can carry firearms in public," she wrote, explaining how the state was overreaching its constitutional authority, thus dealing a blow to the measure.