Police officers red flag confiscation order
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Gun control advocates are always quick to say the same thing: they aren’t looking to take away our firearms or means for self-defense. They simply want “common-sense gun safety measures.” Whatever that means.

That’s a narrative that’s been running rampant in San Jose, California since a shooting there. Last week, the San Jose City Council passed legislation that requires gun owners to purchase a firearm insurance policy (which no insurer sells) and pay an annual gun ownership fee.

Although the city has yet to determine precisely what that fee will be, officials have made one thing clear: gun owners will have to cough up the dough or their firearms will be confiscated.

From Fox Business:

While the council directed staffers to draft up the law for a final September vote, the dollar amount on the new tax for gun owners has not yet been determined. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo suggested the new annual fine will likely be “a couple dozen dollars,” and claimed insurers assured the city that firearms owners adding gun liability coverage to existing policies would cost the affected citizens little or nothing.

But with no official registry of gun owners either locally or federally, officials recognized that enforcement of the forthcoming taxes and insurance requirements could be difficult if not impossible. So, they said they would authorize any law enforcement officers to confiscate the firearms of any gun owner they stumble upon who does not provide proof that they have complied.

Huh. New gun sales in California are registered with the state. But the registration law that went into effect in 2018 didn’t cover firearms that were already owned…other than “assault weapons.” And Californians decided they had no intention of complying with even that requirement.

Registration has been outlawed at the federal level precisely so that law enforcement agencies and government officials are unable to confiscate firearms. But, as Fox Business pointed out, some type of list would have to be developed in order for San Jose to enforce its new insurance requirement…assuming the ordinance survives the impending court challenges that will surely follow.

What’s scary is the city could easily start with a list of concealed carry license holders and crosscheck that to see who paid the new fee. Those who have a permit, but haven’t paid the yet-to-be-determined fee would be easy targets for San Jose’s confiscation squad.

This is precisely why Second Amendment supporters oppose registries and why gun rights groups fought so hard for a ban at the federal level. If there’s a list of guns and gun owners, the government will — at some point — take advantage of that information. It’s just a matter of when.

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70 COMMENTS

  1. So, now they want enforce their unconstitutional insurance requirement with unconstitutional gun confiscation… Hope y’all have plenty of popcorn stocked up, this going to get interesting…

        • Sorry, don’t need ammo. Even for that kind of fun, I ain’t going to CA. I’ll save my ammo for when somebody comes to my door to register my guns. And if you don’t come to my door and kill me, they will not be registered. One more time, registration has been the ONLY goal for around 50 years now. There is a reason.

  2. “San Jose City Council passed legislation that requires gun owners to purchase a firearm insurance policy…”

    These are the same type people who label pre-paid legal defense service as guilty of buying “murder insurance”.

    Makes you think they are up to something.

    • Do you know the way to San Jose? No…hell no. “Someone” could ya know publish all the names of these law losers…

      • “Doxxing” liberals is a violation of their constitutional right to be morally superior. Besides, doxxing is naughty; recommend you have nothing to do with it.

      • publish all the names of these law losers…

        Damn just look it up, try San Jose city officials in the search engine of your choice… Amazing thing the Interweb, thanks Al Gore…

        • Got your poll tax and Jim Crow Gun Control all rolled up in San Diego. All that’s missing are the sheets, pointed hats, burning crosses, nooses, concentration camps and other insanity related to Gun Control.
          And the Rat Party wants everyone to believe Jim Crow was just in the South when its roots obviously run deep in the San Diego council…What filth.

      • I’m approx 1900 miles (3,344,000 yds) from San HoseYa as the bullet flies, so can’t help y’all out there. But I do enjoy watching. 🙂

    • If the mayor could build a wall around San Jose and ban all guns (except for police) inside the walls, he would do it. He has been playing this “death by a thousand cuts” game for a long time as it is his only option for achieving his desired goal.

  3. Registration began for hand guns in California in 2000, for long guns in 2013.

    Well, as a retired police officer told me, there is no “registration” in California–because the law calls it something else. (He ultimately agreed that no matter what it is called, it is registration in effect.)

    Another issue SJ faces is that courts held years ago (in connection with efforts by the CADOJ to se3ize firearms from prohibited persons) that merely because one shows up in the state’s database does NOT establish probable cause for a warrant–because the system is so screwed up. For example, if I sell a gun, the gun still shows as registered to me even if the new owner registers the purchase (which is always because we have universal background checks and each sale is sent to the State on a Dealer Record of Sale document.)

    I disagree that gun liability insurance is not available. The various policies that offer protection from criminal charges after a DGU also provide civil liability insurance for accidental shootings, as I understand it. The only thing NO ONE can get and insurance companies CANNOT OFFER is insurance coverage for intentional shootings.

    • Actually, handgun registration for standard sales & transfers in CA began back in 1991, with intrafamilial transfers following in 1993.

      2000 introduced the CA ban against AWB transfers. This was also when the general exemption for .22LR guns was removed, and the “large capacity” magazine ban was implemented.

      2014 introduced universal registration of long guns.

      2016 introduced a total ban of all existing 10+ round magazines, including those previously grandfathered back in 2000. This was AB63, signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and later ruled as unconstitutional by the venerable Judge Roger “Saint” Benitez. It remains in appellate purgatory.

      2018 introduced universal registration of home-built guns, as well as absurd specification requirements for home-built pistols.

      • Just stopping by to remind you it’s been exactly 6 months since you skipped out on 1/6 Freedom Day like a coward.

        • All Hail the diligent focus of A True Patriot. While the rest of the world moves forward, he remains at his post to dutifully remind us of info that would otherwise have been allowed to slip into the fog of history. His dedication to his craft is legendary.

          All Hail!

        • I personally know people who have, and those who have not. The who have lean more toward Fudd and do not understand the 2A well.

  4. This must be what the residents want since their the one’s that elected these jerk’s.
    Maybe if there was some retaliation things would change.
    Maybe not…

  5. “A free man doesn’t ask permission to bear arms, he doesn’t have to.” – Thomas Jefferson

    If you need to lobby for your rights, you don’t understand what rights are, and you don’t have any.

    “No state shall convert a liberty into a license, and charge a fee therefore.” (Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105)
    “If the State converts a right (liberty) into a privilege, the citizen can ignore the license and fee and engage in the right (liberty) with impunity.” (Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, Alabama, 373 U.S. 262)
    Hmmmmm………looks interesting. Excuse me, gotta go, popcorn delivery truck is out front. Ammo truck was here earlier.

  6. “If you need to lobby for your rights, you don’t understand what rights are, and you don’t have any.”

    A person effectively holds only those rights such person can individually, and successfully, defend. Everything else is theoretical.

  7. The stupidity of this entire mess is monumental. I hope that the courts will strike this down as soon as it is enacted.

  8. Well if we look at the APPS database for any reference we can see that over half of the data will be inaccurate. Based on that alone, I would say this is doomed from the start.
    Taking guns away from people who legally own them based off of bad information is a major liability to the city.

  9. “What’s scary is the city could easily start with a list of concealed carry license holders and crosscheck that to see who paid the new fee. Those who have a permit, but haven’t paid the yet-to-be-determined fee would be easy targets for San Jose’s confiscation squad.”

    Santa Clara County does not issue. Unless less you bribe them.

    • Not any more, not after the second in command at the Sheriff’s Office was arrested. Have they arrested the Sheriff yet?

  11. “Time to bust out my “Don’t California my Texas” bummer sticker”

    Thinking of having one made: “Don’t Californicate My State”

    • Let me know when you have the new version ready for purchase
      Already have the “Don’t California my Texas.”

      It does feel like it’s too late, so many people from Blue States have moved to Red States! Please get your ass to your Blue States and and fix them!

      • “Let me know when you have the new version ready for purchase”

        Always thinking about doing something, but, alas, I fall asleep at the computer and wake up with little square impressions all over my face. Drink a coupla martoonies, think of something, fall asleep; repeat.

  12. Well that’s funny, TTAG was big on gunm insurance just not to long ago.
    A lot of articles on why you need it and your an idiot if you dont have it.
    I just cant do,” license, registration, and proof of insurance ” on a constitutional right. A Right is not a Privilege.

    • Mandatory insurance, and “voluntarily protect yourself from financial ruin” enormously different concepts. In previous discussions/articles, there were few supporting the idea/threat of government mandated insurance for gun owners.

        • “It starts small and ends big, auto insurance was optional at one time.”

          Govt doesn’t need voluntary purchases to give it the idea that purchases should be mandatory. Govt can mandate that your mandatory/compulsory insurance must name the state as beneficiary in order to reimburse state and local governments for the expense of dealing with waste disposal after a DGU. Govt doesn’t need voluntary insurance as an excuse for that, either.

          So, yes, while gun owner liability insurance is voluntary one can chose to risk the financial ruin. Which is why there is a huge difference between mandatory and voluntary; they are not even distantly the same.

  14. A specific tax to exercise an enumerated Constitutional right seems likely to be struck down relatively quickly, even in Loony Left California and the 9th Circus.
    I have no doubt that I’m in CA’s de facto registration database because I bought a gun while going to college there in the 90’s. Stupid stuff like this is a big reason I left and never looked back.

    • “A specific tax to exercise an enumerated Constitutional right seems likely to be struck down relatively quickly, even in Loony Left California and the 9th Circus.”

      IIRC, Californication already has additional taxes on guns and ammo. Seems to be successful, so far. Why would an additional tax make a difference?

      • In fact, there is a bill pending to add an ADDITIONAL 10% tax on the sale of hand guns, 11% on long guns and ammunition. (Still pending, but they keep passing on voting on it, unknown as to why. I think the sponsor may be short a few votes on getting it passed.)

  15. The absence of such a registry wouldn’t stop them. That registry would just make it much easier.
    As it stands now… cell phone providers have your location and it wouldn’t take much to ID anyone entering a gun store (physical or online). Then cross that with the individual’s banking data. Fedex/UPS/USPS deliveries from the addresses of ammo sellers would also be easy to get.

    Nothing is private now. Everything you do, everywhere you go, even whom you are with, are all available.

    • Hidden Radios in Home Devices (IOT)! The next Cyberthreat

      https://youtu.be/-tIK3Fk-bLA

      Check out this info….scary, but not surprising. Big Brother is watching way beyond “1984” concepts/technology. Nothing about us is secret anymore. They know what arms we have. They merely need to make them all illegal. They won’t go door-to-door to confiscate them. You will freely hand them in under fear of having your financial world shut down at the touch of a key…..credit cards, banking accounts….checking/savings/CDs, investment accounts, paychecks/Social Security checks, phones, internet, cable, YouTube/Twitter/FaceBook social accounts…..

      • You will freely hand them in under fear of having your financial world shut down at the touch of a key

        My “financial world” is rolled up in rubber bands and buried in the back yard in Mason Jars…

        • And, you have no credit cards, investment accounts, phones, social accounts, internet access (you’re merely using telepathy to communicate on this site…), cable, etc. Well, that makes you a very special person…probably one of six or seven out of the American population……sure you’re missing ole Ted Kaczynski from your band of merry men. Sure you and those others will mount a serious resistance with that massive cache of rubber bands…..

        • Yeah, I’ve got ALL that shit but what makes ME special is that you can’t threaten me with taking it away because I know how AND have the means AND ABILITY to survive without it. Apparently YOU either don’t unerstand that concept or lack the skills to just say fuck you take it I don’t care…
          If I need to mount a resistance it won’t be with rubber bands… Damn you went from ZERO to personal in 2.2 seconds, fuckin moron…

        • I’ve got a bank account, no credit cards, this cell phone was bought by someone else, it’s in there name. I pay someone to use their credit card. No internet or cable. Everything I buy is with cash.
          The information on the bluetooth, wifi was very helpful, thank you.

          In 1982 a guy was telling everyone there were cameras in TV’S, everyone thought paranoid nut job. Guess he was right after all

    • WE can’t have ammo delivered to our homes any more. We have to go pick it up at a gun store, with ID and an instant bcg, though, so the state knows that you own at least ONE gun when you purchase ammo. Presumably San Jose police can access that data base, but that will not tell them if you have appropriate liability coverage.

  16. This law is a Poll Tax…………

    I can’t believe so many of you can’t see that.

  17. “What would things been like if during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there, paling with terror at every bang on the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people?”

    — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    We will find out if Americans have more b@lls than Russians. I’m guessing not.

    • Not this time. Maybe later Americans will have the balls, after they get a taste of what it’s like not to have freedom.

  18. Hardly unexpected. Kalifornians been voting it in and touting progression for years.

  19. Neither the Chinese or the New Government have a big enough Gōngjī to confiscate the amount of firearms there are in the US.

    Logistically I can’t see how they could get more than a few hundred households nationwide before the alarm was sounded and resistance began.

    Nukes? Not the POTUS, but wouldn’t put it past someone lower in the chain.

        • Unfortunately for all you keyboard commandos, If you are alone when the SHTF, you will be lucky to get off 4-5 rifle mags and MAYBE 2 pistol mags before all of your ammo is “their” ammo. Period. Reality.

        • We won’t know the end results until a mass confiscation is started. Will people join together and support each other or will people hide in their basements? How many are committed to remaining free and keeping freedom secure for the next generation?

          Of course many will fail, but will they fail on their feet in defiance or on thier knees in defeat?

          JB do you believe that your freedom is worth defending? Is it worth your life to keep it for your children and grandchildren? I know my answer to this question. Do you? If our answers are the same, does that make you a keyboard commando?

      • You can multiply your ammunition pretty quickly if you target those enemies who you know are carrying arms and ammo, until you have sufficient ammo to target those enemies who give orders to the armed ones.

  20. So…confiscation from gang members, too…or just legally registered guns in the hands of otherwise law-abiding citizens?

      • They can’t confiscate from gang members–their firearms are not registered. Doh! (Such idiots in San Jose!)

    • “So…confiscation from gang members, too…or just legally registered guns in the hands of otherwise law-abiding citizens?”

      Gangs are not a threat to “good people”, who only go where other “good people” go, and do the things “good people” like to do. Legal gun owners might also go where “good people go “, but gun owners look just like “good people”, and gun owners are only a heartbeat away from snapping and hurting the really “good people”. Gangs hang out in places where “good people” don’t go. Gang members who venture into places “good people” go are highly recognizable (they look like gang members), and easily avoided.

  21. “You owe us the San Jose ownership fee.”
    “I don’t keep my gun in San Jose, I owe you nothing.”
    “Well, where is that gun kept?”
    “I don’t answer questions. Come back with a warrant.”

  22. Their voters need poll insurance in case they elect a fool. Can’t be too careful.

  24. Someone should file a complaint of extortion against the city government… Pay the fee or we can take your guns? Sounds like a shakedown to me….

  25. “Registration has been outlawed at the federal level precisely so that law enforcement agencies and government officials are unable to confiscate firearms.”

    Not only that, but also because the cybersecurity record of the government is not stellar, and any list they collect is likely to make it out into the wild, letting a whole slew of bad actors know just which houses to hit for the good stuff.

  26. Does anyone remember the scene in the original (1984) “Red Dawn” filmed? The scene where the communists goes to get the list of guns. That were purchased locally from the gun stores. And uses the government purchase/registration forms to build a gun confiscation list?

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