According to Firearm Chronicles
San Jose has decided they need to create some ridiculous obstacles to gun ownership, starting with gun liability insurance and going on to requiring a fee from everyone who owns a gun. In theory, this fee will force gun owners to pay for the destruction caused by gun violence.
Never mind that the gun violence is generally committed by people who aren’t going to be paying any such fee. That’s completely irrelevant to the San Jose city officials who backed this measure.
But hey, at least people who already have guns shouldn’t have to deal with this, right?
Right?
Right?
Well, apparently, they will or face something even more troubling.
A report from Fox Business notes that San Jose residents who refuse to comply with a city-level fee on gun ownership will face confiscation of their firearms.
On June 30, 2021, Breitbart News reported the San Jose city council passed more gun control in response to the May 26, 2021, mass shooting in the city. That attacker in that incident used legally purchased handguns which were registered in California in accordance with state law.
NBC Bay Area reports that the San Jose City Council’s gun control response included a liability insurance requirement for gun owners and fee which will be imposed on gun ownership.
Fox Business notes that “officials said that anyone found to be in noncompliance will have their weapons confiscated.”
Of course, since California requires handguns so-called assault weapons to be registered, that gives them a pretty good basis to know where to look for who has guns.
Once again, this is why opposition to registration or licensing is so important. All it really does is empower the government to confiscate those guns whenever they decide they don’t want you to have them anymore. At that point, gun ownership becomes a privilege, not a right, and that’s something no American should tolerate.
At the end of the day, though, San Jose has accomplished nothing except alienating law-abiding gun owners and made lawful gun ownership cost-prohibitive for many in the city.
After all, the people causing almost all of the problems in the city aren’t going to follow any of these regulations. They’re also not going to get their guns confiscated for failure to comply with these regulations. None of that will happen and everyone with half a brain will know it.
Unfortunately, the so-called leadership of San Jose apparently lacks that half of a brain. They really think they’re onto something with this.
Needless to say, this will lead to legal challenges and I’m not sure even the Ninth Circuit en banc panel would be able to find this to be anything but unconstitutional. Of course, this is the Ninth Circuit we’re talking about here, so I really shouldn’t get my hopes up that anyone besides Judge Benitez will see any sense.
Regardless of who does it–whether the Ninth Circuit slaps it down or whether it has to go to the Supreme Court–this law won’t stand indefinitely. San Jose had best consider that before they start taking people’s guns. Otherwise, I suspect the City of San Jose will have to return those weapons or buy their residents all new guns if they’ve been destroyed.