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Category: All About Guns
A new law in San Jose, Calif., mandates that all city gun owners own insurance covering costs related to accidental gunshot injuries or deaths.PHOTO: /ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dave Truslow, a San Jose, Calif., tech-industry retiree and firearms instructor, recently started storing his collection of more than 100 guns out of town because he wanted to get ahead of a new city law requiring him to carry liability insurance for them.
“I decided I did not want to be required to comply with this,” Mr. Truslow said of the law, which went into effect Jan. 1.
San Jose’s law, the first of its type in the nation, mandates that gun owners in the city of nearly one million have insurance covering costs related to accidental gunshot injuries or deaths. The law doesn’t require policies to cover criminal misuse of firearms.
The law was pushed by former Mayor Sam Liccardo after a series of mass shootings in the area. Mr. Liccardo, a Democrat who recently stepped down due to term limits, said he thinks the law ultimately will result in insurers offering lower premiums to gun owners who safely store and handle their firearms, much like auto insurers give discounts for good driving.
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo says he began to push for the insurance law after mass shootings in the area.PHOTO: HAVEN DALEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Just as insurance was a mechanism to dramatically improve road safety . . . insurance with guns could similarly have that effect,” Mr. Liccardo said.
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Gunowners who object to the law, including Mr. Truslow, said they already took safety measures such as keeping their firearms in safes. City officials should spend more time focusing on fighting gun violence, he said.
Gun-rights groups filed lawsuits in response to the ordinance last year before it went into effect. A federal judge tossed out the suits but said that some of the claims could be refiled because the complaints had been drafted before the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important Second Amendment case last summer known as New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
In that case, the Supreme Court threw out New York’s restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in public, a decision that since has been invoked by judges in striking down several firearm restrictions.
In response, gun-control advocates in state and local governments have looked toward new approaches that could hold up in court. California last year passed a law allowing individuals to sue gun makers over violations of the state’s gun restrictions, basing on a Texas law allowing private individuals to sue to enforce abortion restrictions.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in December signed a law akin San Jose’s insurance law, which requires at least $300,000 in insurance coverage related to injury, death, or property damage for people with permits to carry guns in public.
The San Jose law applies to all gun owners, regardless of whether they carry them in public.
Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, said his organization is preparing new legal challenges to San Jose on Second Amendment grounds. “This is just a way to make it too costly to own a gun,” Mr. Michel said.
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A city spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Advocates on both sides of America’s gun-rights debate say they are watching the San Jose law closely. The measure’s success or failure could determine whether such laws are adopted elsewhere.
A California state lawmaker has proposed a bill to require gun-liability insurance statewide.
Obtaining the insurance required by San Jose likely won’t be difficult for most people, said Janet Ruiz, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group. Most homeowners- and renters-insurance policies cover the type of liability described in the new law, she said.
A vigil at San Jose City Hall in 2021 honored victims of a shooting.PHOTO: AMY OSBORNE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
A few insurers offer stand-alone gun-liability policies, but most don’t, according to the institute.
Mr. Liccardo said the law doesn’t call for San Jose’s police department to proactively check whether people with firearms have insurance. But gun owners will be required to carry proof of insurance with their firearms much as drivers do, he said.
As one example, he said officers could check if they responded to a domestic violence call and a gun was present. Those not in compliance face fines of up to $1,000.
Accidental shootings accounted for 1% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of accidental shooting deaths ticked up in 2020, but in general has been falling for decades, according to the CDC.
Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com
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Very nice!
Duke’s luck brought him the better part of this German bcd4
sniper rifle from a rare visit to a pawn shop.
Luck? I couldn’t win a lottery if only two of us entered. Back in the 1970s, I once indulged in playing Blackjack at a Montana casino. After a while of steadily losing, the lovely gal dealing whispered to me, “Mister, you shouldn’t gamble.” More or less in my life I have lived her advice. When ignoring it I’ve paid the price!
That said: I have had some excellent luck in finding good guns and good gun deals. One of my best finds came out of a Montana pawn shop. But get this: I almost never go in pawn shops! Why? Because most firearms in them are run of the mill and fantastically overpriced.
The extra-wide left receiver rail told Duke this was one of the K98ks
built from the ground up to become a sniper rifle.
Kismet
One day Yvonne was having a minor medical procedure in Bozeman, Mont. Her doctor told me to come back in two hours and she would be ready to go home. Yvonne wanted me to pick up a few sacks of horse feed, which I did and was heading back to the hospital early. Passing a pawn shop on a rare whim I quickly turned into its parking lot.
As expected, their rifle racks and handgun counter had nothing of interest but I happened to glance behind the counter. There sat what was obviously a tampered-with military Mauser rifle. When asked what it was the counter fellow said, “It’s what’s left of a German sniper rifle.” Naturally I wanted to examine it and with a quick glance asked about its cost. The counter guy’s price was a giveaway so I nabbed it.
Brothers did I luck out! Examining it in my car, I quickly determined it was more than just a good buy. It was a K98k with the factory code of bcd4. (The German Wehrmacht put codes on almost all military equipment instead of manufacturers’ names.) The code meant my new rifle had been made at the Gustloff-Werke facility located in the city of Weimar. The “4” stood for the manufacturing date of 1944 and was likely the only time a German code used a single numeral for a year.
Most noteworthy is K98k Mausers coded bcd4 were intended from the very start of manufacture to become sniper rifles. Not all did but they were meant to be. The giveaway is the receiver’s left side rail is approximately 1/8″ thicker than other K98ks. The reason was so the side rail could then be planed flat on its exterior surface. Thusly the scope mount was affixed to a flat surface making it sturdy in combat conditions. Collectors have come to call this mount the long side rail. A short side rail version preceded it. Having the mounts’ flat surface attached to a rounded action rail resulted in easily loosened scope mounts from rough handling. My collection contains one of those also.
There was another feature particular to bcd4 Mausers I was not aware of at time of purchase — a checkered steel buttplate instead of smooth steel ones other K98ks wore. Mine has the proper buttplate.
Gun Butcher
Now you’re wondering why the counter guy said, “What’s left of a German sniper rifle.” It’s because some yahoo cut the stock off from rear barrel band forward, which also meant its forend cap with bayonet lug was missing. Duke does not fear trivia! Proper-era steel replacements were quickly found on the Internet. Also obtained was a broken K98k stock with its wood from barrel band forward intact. All that was needed was a good gunsmith and locally that was Rocky’s Gun Works of Logan, Mont.
What about mounts and a scope? I had on hand a German commercial Hensoldt 4x scope which could be war-time or post-war vintage. As the United States did with Weaver 2.5x scopes for their Model 1903A4 sniper rifles, early in the war German ordnance people gathered up scopes from the civilian market. For mounts I turned to a company called Accumounts that supplies replicas of most World War II sniper rifle mounts and even reproductions of some scopes. I’ve used their products for many years with satisfaction.
Within a reasonable time, Rocky called one day and said my rifle was ready. I hotfooted to his shop. He did an amazing job. If an observer didn’t know the wood from the barrel band forward was grafted onto the original stock, it wouldn’t be noticed. With a minor outlay of money, some questing for vintage parts and the efforts of a talented gunsmith, I became the owner of a fine shooting, mostly-original German K98k long-siderail sniper rifle.
And let’s not forget a healthy dose of luck!
