Mix an equal part of misinformation with the natural predisposition of fear of the unknown and you have a perfect storm of B.S.
Kansas has a problem: It has a law allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom, but almost no schools are using it because insurance companies refuse to provide coverage if they do. As EMC Insurance, the largest insurer of schools in Kansas, explained in a letter to its agents, the company “has concluded that concealed handguns on school premises poses a heightened liability risk.”
One roadblock to arming teachers: Insurance companies
I am not surprised: This is a new area and Insurance Companies are notoriously adverse to unknown risks. If they don’t have the data to their actuary tables, their collective panties suffer incontinence accidents.
As proposals to arm teachers sweep across the nation, insurance companies are being forced to weigh the risks of these controversial plans. Some insurers are balking. Some are agreeing to provide policies but lamenting the lack of evidence about whether it makes schools safer — or increases the chances of people getting shot. Others are raising rates.
So, when in doubt, they go back to what they know even if it does not apply.
“Putting in more resource officers — that’s additional security — we feel that makes it safer,” said Paul Marshall, of McGowan Program Administrators. “It’s different when you start pushing it to arming teachers, volunteers, voluntary security.”
Marshall has a particular interest in ways to prevent school shootings because his company sells “active shooter” insurance policies. It’s a newer line of coverage that has gained popularity as schools look at ways to grapple with the risk of mass shootings on their campuses. The policies pay for counseling services and victim death benefits
More guns make insurers nervous in other situations, too, said Scott Kennedy, president of CCIG, an insurance company in Colorado. He pointed to the common preference among insurers that nightclub bouncers remain unarmed, while off-duty police officers working security are usually allowed to carry firearms.
Don’t rock the boat. And I am gonna hazard that the fear of being targeted by the David Hoggs of the Gun Control Side may have to do something also. But I am also willing to bet that the re-insurers that cover those companies have among their many clients a various and extended sundry of gun clubs. From the basic coverage for square ranges to full coverage for action shooting sports, gun clubs have not only insurance coverage but a long history of being safe which shows in the absurd low fees. I say absurd, because the monies for insurance paid by IDPA club I used to shoot with were substantially lower than paintball clubs or pewee sports.
The solution? Allow school carry and make it illegal to force disclosure to anybody in the School administration system. That would force the insurance companies to either stop trying to weasel out or they would have to stop insuring all schools and lose that potential revenue which I am sure is not peanuts.
Hat Tip Don J.