The Mayor of San Jose, CA holds forth on gun control:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Op-Ed: My city’s new gun control laws will help more than waiting on Congress to do something

A gunman holding four people hostage at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue this weekend provides another reminder of the daily threat of gun violence to our local communities. San Jose, where I am mayor, is hardly immune: Our 1 million residents have endured three mass shootings in three years, along with hundreds of gun-inflicted killings, suicides and serious injuries.

Last June our City Council unanimously approved my proposals that will mitigate gun harm in our community — and a final vote on Jan. 25 should turn them into law. The proposals include two requirements for gun owners that no city or state in the U.S. has ever implemented: the purchase of liability insurance and the payment of annual fees to fund violence-reduction initiatives. We anticipate that a barrage of lawsuits from the firearm industry and gun rights advocates will follow.

Why should any city subject itself to litigation? Because now-common horrific reports of shootings throughout the nation do little more than elicit a performative parade of prayers and platitudes from Congress. Because problem-solving must be elevated over political posturing.

Because, as one grieving mother urged as I hugged her at her son’s memorial, “we just need somebody to do something.”

My proposals take a page from public health approaches that have reduced auto-related deaths, tobacco use and teen pregnancy in the U.S. They incentivize responsibility, draw on multi-disciplinary learning and invest in proven harm-reduction initiatives with the guidance of experts.

~snip~

The rest at the link:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-01-19/op-ed-new-gun-control-laws-help-congress

[brush]

1. Kudos to the mayor. Maybe other cities/states will follow.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Right there with you. It's certainly better than doing nothing. n/t

[crickets]

3. Excellent! More like this, please. nt