Following his city's recent approval of a plan to reduce gun violence, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccard met Monday with President Joe Biden and other officials at the White House to discuss how the same can be done nationally.
The gun harm reduction proposals approved by the San Jose City Council at the end of June 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 to mitigate gun straw purchases, among many other proposals.
The mayor likens gun insurance to auto insurance, which he said was effective in reducing per-mile car accidents by 80 percent in four decades. Insurance would also reduce the public cost of gun violence, the mayor maintains, which in San Jose costs taxpayers about $442 million annually, according to preliminary data from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation.
Liccardo first proposed the measures after the 2019 Garlic Festival shooting in Gilroy which claimed four lives and wounded 17.
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 rail yard.
“The mayor likens gun insurance to auto insurance, which he said was effective in reducing per-mile car accidents by 80 percent in four decades.”
Who knew car insurance wasn’t invented until 1980? Lucky for the mayor’s statistical claims that it came along during the same decade as did anti-lock brakes, improved vehicle suspensions, the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the adoption of the “red clearance interval” on traffic signals, increased use of median barriers (e.g. Hwy 17), etc.
Also lucky for the mayor, with Biden he’ll have an audience even dumber than those who watch “The View.”
This is unsurprising. It was predicted.
He is engaging in this stunt to a great degree if not fully as a political move and to get more exposure. Television interviews were what might happen, though he got one or more earlier so they may not care to do another round with him now.
Subversion stunts for political purposes — he may well know along with some others running the city that there’s no way these can proceed since they’re so illegitimate. (That they’re loony doesn’t matter to the gun control crowd, any more than the Constitution or any other fact or obstacle does.)
Ya got yer exposure, Sammy, like Cuomo shown at the Second Avenue Subway opening and all the rest of the superficial appeal to the usual crowd.
The mayor’s auto insurance analogy continues to be wrong, fooling only idiots.
They’re the ones to whom he’s appealing by engaging in this attempted form of subversion with his infringement ideas, while approaching the end of his term and working already for his next job. This is campaign material. He and others may know they can’t do these crazy as well as illegitimate things, even if fellow subversives and idiots love it. They may already be expecting the legal team to give the city an excuse not to proceed (at least with everything), while taking that moment also to make more political (campaign) statements.
I advise you not hyperventilate because it increases atmospheric CO2.
I will have reduced anthropogenic CO2 emissions if my advice is taken.
There has been no real debate; you’ve just been griping and posting a good deal of incorrect and “unsound” or unhealthy material. The gun control measures sought are illegitimate, and are as likely certain as anything a political stunt to help Liccardo get his next political gig. (The test is if people see him as possibly a lobbyist. Representing whom? Google has its own people already.)
Important to note that NOTHING in Liccardo’s proposal shows evidence of reducing firearms crime. Millions have been spent by DOJ and foundations to identify such programs. Project Ceasefire is but one. No silver bullets, but some have shown significant reductions.
Meanwhile, no increased funding for SJPD or signs of life since 2017 in the Mayor’s Gang Prevention task force.
Let’s not forget that Liccardo’s 2019 gun control effort included city-provided insurance should SJ firearms owners not have it. The proposal was quietly dropped in his 2021 grand-standing proposal.
Why? Because such insurance isn’t available. SJ explored offering it in 2019 and quickly realized it would make the Hayes Mansion purchase and Redevelopment Agency boondoggles look like petty cash loses in comparison.