Liccardo’s fee on guns just

a headline-grabbing event

Re: “Thanks, Mayor Liccardo, for gun insurance idea” (Letter to the editor, Sept. 4):

The letter-writer does not understand San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo’s fee on gun owners.

If your car is stolen, your insurance may pay to repair your car, but it will not pay for the damage someone intentionally did while driving it. (Driving is a privilege, not a right.)

This is like telling people that they must pay a fee to exercise their right to vote (a poll tax) and would have a disparate impact on the poor.

Unlike car insurance, if your firearm were ever used in a manner that caused harm, the owner would instantly become subject to the lawsuit that would follow.

This fee could be any amount — imagine that if some insurance company did write a policy, what the premium would be.

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Edward Kaufman

San Jose

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