Automobile liability insurance is a well-known way of sheltering both car owners and the rest of society from unusual costs.  Auto liability insurance prices risk for a specific car and a specific driver, adds 40% for overhead and profit, and charges that to each car owner. To estimate similar insurance for guns, we need to know how many guns are in the country. One estimate is that, in the last decade, the country first exceeded one firearm per person.  If there is one firearm per person, the cost of insurance, overhead, and profit for a single firearm would be $77 on average.  Less-than-average could be charged for hunting weapons if they result in less-than-average insurance payouts.

When the program starts, rewards for registering existing firearms may be necessary, and later penalties for not registering, with the highest penalty if a shooting occurs.  Escrow agents may be needed to hold new firearms and payments while the buyers’ insurance applications are pending.  Purchase of ammunition and gunsmith work could require an insurance card.  Failure to renew insurance could forfeit confidentiality to allow investigation.

It may be necessary to have a government option for insurance on assault rifles and handguns if no commercial insurance will cover them. To allow commercial companies to take over this market if they wish, the government could charge more for administration and profit than is usual in the industry. The commercial companies that might be interested could be backed by the National Rifle Association, or could be the NRA itself.

Some may say that these measures might reduce gun violence but they are inadequate because they will not eliminate it. When the other choices are to do nothing or to pursue unachievable elimination of all violence, successfully pursuing achievable improvements becomes the most worthy goal.

Initially the insurance companies will lack the years of data that they have for automobile insurance.  They may require reinsurance from the government until they have the experience to accurately price the risk of gun insurance.

 There are important legal considerations. Auto insurance excludes willful acts, which avoids the moral hazard of a driver deliberately crashing for the insurance money.  Willful acts with firearms levy a cost on society that should be paid, but the payments might go to a beneficiary representative of society but remote from the gunman, such as a state welfare department. To comply with existing statutes, it may be necessary for a gunman who commits a willful act to forfeit all assets, with the liability insurance in a second position to cover losses in excess of the shooter’s assets. It may be necessary to limit benefits to those losses otherwise covered by taxes, such as welfare costs and forfeited public education costs, in order for the policy to pass court scrutiny.

 The current Supreme Court is guided by the 10th Amendment, that any power not delegated by the Constitution to the United States is reserved to the States or to the people.  The current Supreme Court is unlikely to approve a Federal universal requirement for insurance. 

The current Senate is reluctant to act in any innovative way, such as using powers over interstate commerce for the purposes of bearing arms/bearing costs. It may be that a well-developed program of bearing arms/bearing costs would appeal to enough voters in the future so that an increased number of moderate politicians could be elected. 

Every state requires auto liability insurance.  Any car that crosses a state line carries with it the financial responsibility for liability.  For guns, individual states could enact universal firearm liability insurance, leaving unresolved the problem of financial responsibility for firearms that cross state lines.  That may be the most that can be achieved in the short run, leaving the hope that in the long run the program would expand to all states. 

Policies or proposals have already been initiated in San Jose, CA, and in Massachusetts. A long journey begins with a single step, and these are first steps that have been taken. Bearing arms/bearing costs is a private effort to encourage further steps. Your favorable response will encourage others to join the journey.

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