Gun Owner Privacy Under Attack – Again
Gun Owners of California has been fielding a significant number of calls in the past week regarding AB 3067, a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D) which would outrageously mandate that homeowner insurance companies ask applicants how many firearms are in the home and where/how they are stored. The real kicker is that the bill also requires this information be reported to California’s Department of Insurance and the Legislature.
Although the bill does maintain that no identifying information on the homeowner would be transmitted to the state, Gipson’s office has been unable to answer some very basic questions because as currently written, the bill is vague and short on particulars. In fact, GOC had to push for what little information we ultimately did receive, following a series of phone calls and an email.
We asked what specifically would be submitted to the Department of Insurance and the Legislature – since it stipulates that it is to remain confidential and non-identifiable. The answer? How many guns are in the home and where they are stored. But what about details on the guns themselves or precise methods of storage?
We also asked whether responses to the questions required by the bill could be used as a reason for insurers not providing coverage and who or what entity within the Legislature would the information be submitted – and for what purpose. This is yet another detail to which they had no response. Further, we asked what the need was for such legislation, and they replied with the overused and inaccurate statement that “guns in the home are dangerous.”
This bill is far from being a finished product. They are evidently in conversations with the bill’s sponsors – the anti-gun extremists Everytown and the Brady Campaign – and further details are being “flushed out.”
GOC wants to be perfectly clear: we have absolutely no faith or confidence that the Legislature has any sort of altruistic intent with this bill. Amendments are forthcoming and the last thing the bill will do is protect our Constitutional rights, whether they are related to the Second Amendment or the 4th which guarantees our privacy rights. These people are not our friends and yes – this is just another step – vague though it is – to disarm us.
And on a closing note – if they get anywhere close to learning the exact number of guns are in California homes, they’ll have a cow. Plus a few kittens.