AP file photo of a person taking aim at a target with a handgun.

LANSING–Proposed legislation in the House would mandate liability insurance for gun dealers.

The bill, named the “Gun Seller Liability Act,” would require dealers to maintain at least $1 million in liability insurance to cover personal injury or property damage from selling a gun to a buyer who is legally prohibited from possessing one.

Reps. Brenda Carter, D-Pontiac, and Kara Hope, D-Holt, introduced the bill, which is cosponsored by eight others.

“The goal is to ensure that victims of gun violence who would otherwise have no recourse can pursue civil damages,” Carter said. “This is about civil liability and ensuring that firearm owners are legally permitted to possess them.”

Carter said that the purpose of the bill is to target sellers who illegally sell firearms, not the gun industry as a whole.

A similar bill was proposed by House Democrats in 2023, but it died in the Criminal Justice Committee.

While Carter said she has high hopes for the bill to pass in the Government Operations Committee, the legislation has received pushback from organizations that worry about what it would mean for gun retailers.

Steve Dulan, an East Lansing attorney and media representative for the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners, said the bill would raise the cost of doing business for smaller gun dealers.

“There is already a system in place that federally mandates criminal background checks,” Dulan said. “Dealers are already subject to a possibility of a lawsuit if they do something negligent.”

Currently, no state has fully implemented a statewide law requiring all gun sellers to maintain liability insurance. Lawmakers in states such as California, Connecticut, and Maryland have historically introduced such legislation, but none has passed it.

The bill is part of a larger push from state lawmakers to strengthen accountability for gun owners and sellers. This effort includes legislation proposed last year to ban untraceable “ghost guns” that do not have serial numbers.

Related measures that have been enacted include universal background checks, safe storage laws, extreme risk protection orders and prohibitions against domestic abusers possessing firearms.