NRA Liability Insurance vs. Complete No-Fault Insurance Costs

The NRA offers liability insurance for gun owners.  With the $100,000 limit and self-defence coverage the cost is $180.00 per year.  It only covers liability after the injured person wins a law suit and has many exclusions.  The self-defense part is by a separate endorsement.  It is excess liability so if the gun owners homeowners insurance pay NRA insurance will not.  It does, however, cover the individual owner and any number of guns owned or used by that person.

The calculation in the post on this Blog Gun Insurance Would Not Be Expensive shows Continue reading

Comments flood Eugene Robinson Washington Post Opinion

Eugene Robinson has an article “Stop the gun madness” in the Washington Post opinion section.  It calls for regulation but does not mention regulation.  It’s of interest to this blog because of the flood of comments.  There are over 2000 comments in about 24 hours as of 4:45 EST on Jan 1, 2013 and it is getting several comments a minute.  A rough scan of the comments shows a mixture with more in favor of increased regulation.  I think this reflects Robinson’s usual readership but is different than the bulk of comments in other places which are typically hostle and opposed to all gun regulation.  It raises the question of whether the dialog will permenently change after Newtown.

Useful Post by Ben Achtenberg on treating Guns like Cars for Insurance.

Ben Achtenberg has an article in the Caring for Survivors of Torture blog titled “We Already Have a Way to Cut Gun Deaths.”  It makes the case for treating gun ownership with the same standards of responsibility as cars in detail and with strength.  He points out our willingness to accept driving tests, licensing, training and mandatory insurance for automobiles.  He shows that these are support the use and ownership of cars and that the “the insurance industry has a vested interest in developing regulations and price points that will not unduly discourage car ownership and use.”  He then rhetorically asks if there any chance of that happening and answers “In the United States of today, not a snowball’s chance in hell.” 

He then goes on to talk about how an insurance system would work on a conventional liability model.  He discusses licensing, regulation, market price differences based on risks and insurance prices being affected by safe practices and good records.  He supports insurance as a part of universal regulation. 

He does not discuss the other models of insurance other than to say that one reader suggested that a surety bond for paying injured parties could replace or supplement insurance.  This is a well thought out article and gives a valuable list of links for Related Reading.