“In a significant legislative push, California Assemblymember Mike Gipson has taken a step that intertwines firearm ownership with the domain of homeowner and renter insurance,” the narrative promoters at BNN gush. “Through the introduction of Bill AB 3067, a new layer of inquiry into the lives of insurance applicants emerges, focusing on the presence and storage of firearms in households. This bill, making waves across the state, signals a pioneering approach to gun safety and regulatory measures.”
Coerced insurance admissions: What could go wrong? The better question is, “What could go right?”
Basically, it would intrude into the homes of every gun owner in the state and require them to self-report the “presence, storage, and number of firearms” to their insurance companies, which in turn would be required to file annual reports to the state.
Per Gipson’s bill summary:
“This bill would require an insurer, by January 1, 2026, to include questions on an application for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance seeking specified information regarding the presence and storage of any firearms kept in the household, accessory structures, or vehicles kept on the property subject to any applicable insurance policy.”
And while there’s an “exclusion” saying “The report shall not contain any identifying information contained in a consumer’s application for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance, including, but not limited to, names, addresses, and telephone numbers, which shall remain confidential,” admissions being required could be used to “justify” a subpoena to give up that information – for instance if information provided does not appear sufficient to comply with “safe storage” mandates, which in this case, could amount to citizens being required to self-incriminate.
Besides, with the nose under the tent, what’s to stop them from coming back in a few years, modifying the law, and requiring photo IDs?
Also left unstated but of relevance is what the penalties will be for errors and omissions. Are we talking “zero tolerance”? While we’re told there will be no personal identifiers, what’s to stop the state from matching its address records against insurer reports and using anything that doesn’t match as an excuse to dig deeper?
The requirement is not just for homeowners. The text includes “an application for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance.” That’s curious, because California law does not require renter’s insurance (although some building owners may). That means the law cannot be uniformly and equally applied, and most profoundly affects those with the wherewithal to own property, that is, the least likely to engage in violent criminality, and excludes uninsured renters.
Gipson, a Democrat, naturally, per his California Legislative Black Caucus page, “represents the new 65th Assembly District which includes the areas of Watts, Willowbrook, Compton, Carson, North Long Beach, Harbor Gateway North & South, Harbor City, Wilmington, and San Pedro,” and that’s curious, too, because that means while he’s imposing this edict on the rest of the state, many of his constituents won’t be affected. That’s because he presides over areas overrun with violent criminal gangs, that is “prohibited persons” forbidden by law to own guns (like that stops them), and therefore exempt from self-reporting (in Haynes v. United States, the Supreme Court agreed that forcing a felon to register a gun he was not permitted to have violated his Fifth Amendment-recognized right against self-incrimination.)
These are some Gipson constituents who won’t be required to comply, which is just as well, since they ignore all other “gun laws” as well:
- Watts: There are two notable rivals, the Grape Street Watts Crips, and the Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods. And dozens more.
- Willowbrook: Streetgangs.com lists 7th Street Watts Crips, Carver Park Compton Crips, Mona Park Compton Crips, Neighborhood Watts Crips, and Six Hood Compton Crips.
- Compton: the “Gang Map” shows territories for dozens, dominated by Crips and the Pirus, a subset of the Bloods.
- Carson: The demographics shift to Hispanic street gangs, including Varrio Carson, Catskill Street, Dominguez Varrio (DV), La Loma, South Side Locos (SSL), Victoria Park Locos, Varrio Keystone Rifa, and Tortilla Flats.
- Long Beach: The “vibrant” area is more diverse but it’s hardly inclusive, with multiple gangs of various ethnic makeups (Crips, Asian Boyz (Cambodian), Sons of Samoa, and Mexican Mafia-affiliated Sureños, but no Bloods) in the whole city, and the notation “Gangs have also formed on the Northside of Long Beach in the northwest section of Long Beach.”
- Harbor Gateway: Gipson can include the 204th Street Gang “Most Notorious Varrio of Harbor Gateway” among his constituents who won’t be telling Allstate what they have.
- Harbor City: The Mexican-American Harbor City Boys and their various cliques coexist in the city with the Harbor City Crips as they carry on feuds and rivalries with surrounding cities.
- Wilmington: This is the home of the Wilmas, predominantly Mexican-American, “described by law enforcement as a plague on the Wilmington community,” and “bitter rivals” with gangs in Harbor City and San Pedro.
- San Pedro: This last stop in our tour of Gipson’s assembly district is where the Rancho San Pedro Locos carry out their longstanding grudge against the Dodge City Crips and rival gangs from surrounding communities.
It’s fair to ask at this point just what Gipson is trying to do and who he hopes to burden with this in-your-face “law-abiding” gun owner harassment– and why. The gulf between stated goals and reality is ludicrously impossible to bridge, and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could justify the administrative expense and the hoops citizens and insurance companies will be required to jump through just to go through motions that have no hope of addressing the real causes of criminal violence and solutions for deterring it. Those would include treating the problem-causers as the threats that they are and dealing with them accordingly, which is something no Democrat is prepared to do, preferring instead to complain about systemic racism and “overrepresentation” of minorities in the justice system as leftist prosecutors play catch-and-release with remorseless predators.
This is the corrupt political machine that Gipson learned the power game in, and it’s instructive to see that earlier in his career he was “a field representative for [Los Angeles Councilman] Mark Ridley-Thomas.” That would be the same Democrat whose collectivist priority was to “impose a fee on ammunition to partially offset the financial costs incurred by firearm victims,” who is now serving 3 ½ years in federal prison for corruption, bribery, and fraud, and is now, incidentally, a “prohibited person” and thus will be effectively immune to this stupid insurance reporting bill when he gets out.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
