The Insurance and Real Estate Committee will hear testimony Tuesday afternoon on legislation requiring gun owners to maintain personal liability and defense insurance.
Under the bill, anyone who possesses or owns a gun would need to buy insurance coverage for “bodily injury or property damage caused by the use of a firearm” and insurance that covers the cost of civil or criminal defense fees, in case the gun owner uses the weapon in self defense.
The legislation would make failure to maintain the insurance coverage a Class A misdemeanor and would not apply to people who temporarily possess a weapon at a gun club.
The bill also requires the commissioner of the Insurance Department to adopt regulations to implement the bill and determine minimum coverage requirements.
Before 5 p.m. Monday, almost 40 people had entered electronic testimony opposing the legislation. Much of the testimony references other changes to the state’s firearm statutes that lawmakers and Gov. Dannel Malloy have proposed in the months since Dec. 14, when a gunman murdered 20 first graders and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown.
“I implore every legislator to cease any and all participation in the continuing discriminatory malicious legislative onslaught being perpetrated against lawful gun owners in this state,” wrote Lisbon resident Thomas Phelps.
The public hearing will begin at 1 p.m. in the Legislative Office Building.
