Maloney Gets Death Threats Over Gun Bill

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney knew that pushing gun legislation would be a touchy subject, but she never thought it would come to death threats. Maloney has been pushing for legislation that would require gun owners to have insurance, and last week her office fielded several threatening phone calls, warning the Congresswoman that she would come to harm if she pushed her bill through. Maloney's office released a statement about the death threats that were fielded by her interns.

"Given all the acts of gun violence we have seen in the past two years, the shootings in Aurora and Newtown, the attack on my friend and colleague Gabby Gifford, I take the threat of more gun violence very seriously," said Maloney. "But it is not something that I will allow to stop me from doing my work."

The proposed bill would require all New York gun owners to have liability insurance. According to Brice Peyre, Maloney's chief of staff, the bill would be market-based, so an elderly woman would pay a different rate than a young man in his 20s.

He also said that liability insurance is already promote and encouraged by the NRA, so the law would not be a huge shift.

Peyre also said that despite having pushed controversial legislation in the past, the Congresswoman has never received death threats before. Maloney's office received dozens of angry calls, four of which "crossed the line" into death threats. Police are investigating the situation.

"The bill would help shift tremendous costs of victims of gun violence in part back on to those who are the gun users, and to people who buy the guns, rather than society as a whole," said Peyre.