Maryland Senators Introduce Bill to Require Liability Insurance for Gun Owners

A bill that would require anyone who owns a firearm to have a minimum of $250,000 liability insurance is among a number of gun control measures recently introduced in the Maryland General Assembly.

Sens. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) and Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) are the sponsors of Senate Bill 577, which would require anyone who owns a firearm to have a minimum of $250,000 of liability insurance. The bill is similar to legislation being proposed in Pennsylvania, California and Massachusetts.

The Baltimore Sun views the legislation as being “designed to harness market forces to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people the same way the cost of car insurance can keep bad drivers off the road.”

How the mandated insurance would be implemented is unclear.

Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York, told Reuters that "a legislature could in theory mandate gun liability coverage, but you cannot require insurers to offer that coverage."

“If insurers declined to offer coverage, states themselves might have to set up insurance liability programs," Hartwig said.

Raskin recently told The Gazette that “[the] NRA offers insurance to all its members, because accidents happen. Guns are so dangerous that everybody should be insured.”

The NRA offers a gun liability insurance policy to its members via Lockton Affinity.