The Democratic congresswoman behind a new bill that would require gun owners to get liability insurance or face a fine of up to $10,000 says she’s now receiving death threats.
New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney said she has been receiving threats since The Daily Caller reported Tuesday about her “Firearm Risk Protection Act,” which would require gun buyers nationwide to obtain “a qualified liability insurance policy” before they are able to legally purchase a firearm.
“They said they were going to kill me,” Maloney said of the threats, according to the New York Daily News. The liberal Democrat, the paper reported, received three calls within about an hour on Tuesday night.
She says she was so shaken up by the calls that she skipped an awards dinner after reflecting on what happened to former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was nearly killed in a 2011 shooting.
“I couldn’t go. Who knows what could happen?” Maloney told the Daily News. “I think any member of Congress would be scared after what happened to my good friend Gabby Giffords.”
The proposed bill offered by Maloney and eight other Democrats says, “It shall be unlawful for a person who owns a firearm purchased on or after the effective date of this subsection not to be covered by a qualified liability insurance policy.”
“For too long, gun victims and society at large have borne the brunt of the costs of gun violence,” Maloney said as she introduced the legislation. “My bill would change that by shifting some of that cost back onto those who own the weapons.”
Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, told The Daily Caller that the bill is “ridiculous on its face, as it presumes law-abiding gun owners are guilty for merely exercising a fundamental, constitutional right.”
Maloney’s bill — while liked by liberal activists — is unlikely to become part of the gun control package President Obama is pushing.
The Democratic congresswoman’s claims come as Obama is traveling to the states of some of the country’s most recent horrific shootings to try to re-invigorate some momentum for gun control legislation.
With doubts that Democrats can get a gun control package passed through Congress, Obama is returning to Colorado — the location of the Aurora movie theater shooting — on Wednesday. He then will travel to Connecticut — the location of the Sandy Hook elementary massacre — 0n Monday.
