San Jose mayor meets with President Biden to discuss national gun violence reduction

Following his city’s recent approval of a plan to reduce gun violence, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is set to meet with President Joe Biden and other officials at the White House on Monday to discuss how the same can be done nationally.

The gun harm reduction proposals approved by the San Jose City Council at the end of June include a mandate for gun insurance; impounding guns from those who do not comply with insurance mandates and other laws; and recording all gun purchases to mitigate gun straw purchases, among many other proposals.

The mayor likens gun insurance to auto insurance, which he said was effective in reducing per-mile car accidents by 80 percent in four decades. Insurance would also reduce to public cost of gun violence, the mayor maintains, which in San Jose costs taxpayers about $442 million annually, according to preliminary data from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation.

Liccardo first proposed the measures after the 2019 Garlic Festival Shooting in the neighboring city of Gilroy. He reintroduced again this year, just weeks after the Bay Area’s deadliest mass shooting, which claimed nine lives in San Jose at the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority yard in May.

The council approved the proposals last month, directing the city attorney to draft an ordinance that will come back for a final vote in September.