CNN’s New Day team was thrilled Monday morning by a new law proposed by a Democrat mayor that would make gun owners in one California city literally pay for the actions of criminals.
Host John Avlon and Early Start anchor Laura Jarrett seemed smitten by San Jose Mayor and Democrat Sam Liccardo’s plan to make gun owners pay the city an annual fee for the financial damage done by criminals. Avlon and Jarrett touted the shocking proposal as “really interesting!” “innovative” and even “how we move forward as a society.”
Before the segment even began, Avlon couldn’t contain his excitement over a law that would punish law-abiding gun owners: “If you want to own a gun in San Jose, California, it's going to cost you. A new one of a kind law targets gun owners, next,” he teased.
After the break, Avlon brought on CNN’s Early Start host and attorney Laura Jarrett to break down the law that received unanimous approval by San Jose’s city council and will be finalized this September.
Again, the New Day host touted the novelty of this anti-gun law as some sort of virtue: “In San Jose, California, has passed a new gun law that's the first of its kind in the nation,” he acclaimed. He kept talking up the new law to Jarrett:
Now get this, the law requires gun owners to have liability insurance. Pay an annual fee to help curb the cost of gun violence...this is a really interesting, innovative policy suggested by the San Jose mayor, how would it work?
As if liberals suddenly cared about saving taxpayers’ money, the CNN duo touted the San Jose Democrat mayor's reasoning that this new law would result in "huge savings" for [non-gun owning] taxpayers:
JARRETT: Check out one data point, I think if we had it in just the six years from 2013 to 2019, one estimate shows there's over 200 incidents of gun violence in San Jose. Guess how much that costs taxpayers, John? An estimated $442.
AVLON: Million. That’s unbelievable the cost of each shooting.
JARRETT: Yes. Exactly. This would be a huge savings if it goes through.
The journalists admitted there would be “legal challenges” but didn’t seem bothered by the idea this law could violate the Constitution. Reading a quote from Mayor Sam Liccardo, Avlon cheered, “So he's saying basically, bring it on.”
Rounding out the segment, Avlon and Jarrett again hailed the proposed law as forward-thinking and “good” for society:
AVLON: A lot of legal challenges, fascinating questions and it's always good to see innovative public policy proposals.
JARRETT: Thinking outside of the box.
AVLON: That’s right. That’s how we move forward as a society.
Read the transcript below:
CNN New Day
7/5/2021
[tease] JOHN AVLON: If you want to own a gun in San Jose, California, it's going to cost you. A new one of a kind law targets gun owners, next.
...
AVLON: In San Jose, California, has passed a new gun law that's the first of its kind in the nation. Now get this, the law requires gun owners to have liability insurance. Pay an annual fee to help curb the cost of gun violence. The law was proposed in the wake of the shooting at the valley transportation authority that left nine people dead back in May, joining us to analyze this is CNN's "Early start" anchor Laura Jarrett. Laura, this is a really interesting, innovative policy suggested by the San Jose mayor, how would it work?
LAURA JARRETT: So super interesting. Novel, first of its kind as you said. Of course, as you can imagine, very controversial already. So the best way to discuss this, as you and I were discussing in a break. Think about car insurance. Anyone can wrap their heads around that, right? The idea, you own a car. You have to have insurance. You pull the risk, hopefully, you don't have as many accidents that way and the same might be true here, if this actually goes through. This is just a draft proposal what they're considering, but if it goes through, it's not only about the devastation to the families, obviously you know, loved ones are lost, people feel that. It's also super expensive for cities that are really impacted by this, right? Check out one data point, I think if we had it in just the six years from 2013 to 2019, one estimate shows there's over 200 incidents of gun violence in San Jose. Guess how much that costs taxpayers, John? An estimated $442.
AVLON: Million. That’s unbelievable the cost of each shooting.
JARRETT: Yes. Exactly. This would be a huge savings if it goes through. But obviously the devil is going to be in the details, right.
AVLON: It always is, and the San Jose mayor isn’t naive in realizing this is going to get legal challenges from day one. But It’s interesting, he confronted that head on. I want to read folks what he said. He said ‘skeptics will say that criminals won't comply. They're right. Yet that's an important feature of these proposals, not a defect. These ordinances create a legal mandate that provides police with a lawful means for seizing guns from non-law abiding dangerous people.’ [Mayor Sam Liccardo]. So he's saying basically, bring it on. But saying that this process not only will allow for some legal gun confiscations for illegal guns presumably or people not complying. But then there's the aspect of mitigating the civic cost. Is there anything to suggest in case law that this effort to create a license or pool the insurance would be considered Constitutional, consistent with the 2nd Amendment?
JARRETT: It's hard to know because this has never happened before. right? I think in terms of the legal challenges if this actually goes through, is how much are we talking here? Are we talking $5, are we talking $50, are we talking $500? The whole question is, is it overly burdensome, for people who obviously have a right to bear arms. The other question, as you mentioned, is the enforcement. The police chief says they're not going door to door. So how are they going to find out and the biggest one here: is it any exemptions, right? So someone who’s a retired police chief. Maybe they don’t have to do this, but maybe just a regular old citizen might have to. Bottom line, a lot of legal challenges.
AVLON: A lot of legal challenges, fascinating questions and it's always good to see innovative public policy proposals.
JARRETT: Thinking outside of the box.
AVLON: That’s right. That’s how we move forward as a society.
