Firearms/ gun owner's insurance

It is often brought up that it should be mandatory gun owners have insurance. Usually from the perspective that this would be a backdoor ban or at least only limit ownership to those of means. Although such a mandate probably would not survive a challenge in courts, there are certain cases where it could be upheld, such as having a carry permit- using a gun beyond simple ownership.

I decided to look into how it is handled now based on my own actual insurance policies.Since insurance laws do vary from state to state my experience may not be applicable to someone in another state or with a different company.

Under my homeowner's policy guns are considered a high value item and so have a upper limit the same as jewellery, furs or silverware. In my case it is $2500Against loss by theft or fire. I can purchase either a higher limit and/or broader coverage for a very reasonable amount.

What most people are interested in is liability insurance, that which would pay someone harmed by my actions.The policy comes with a $100,000 coverage standard and I have increased that to $500,000 at the great cost of $4 per year. In addition I have a one million dollar umbrella policy which covers myself, all members of my household for any liability resulting from action including auto accidents. So altogether I have one and a 1/2 million dollars coverage for the cost of about $10.50 a month.

So now the question is would it cover me if I shot someone on purpose or by accident? Reading the policy, and I recommend everyone read their insurance policies it's not that difficult, under exclusions it says intentional acts are excluded. Therefore if I intentionally try to harm someone these policies provide no coverage. However it does go on to say this exclusion does not apply in the case of REASONABLE USE OF FORCE IN SELF-DEFENSE, it is capitalised in the policy. So to sum up if I were to commit a crime, an intentional act, I would not be covered. If I shot at someone in self defence I would be, even if I hit a different person because that would be considered accidental. I did not hit the person I was aiming at.

The insurance company also does not care what kind of gun or how many i may have. Unless I have a collection worth over $2500, then they are happy to sell me extra coverage.

All this is to show an insurance mandate would only affect the poorest, those unable to spend an extra $10 per month. It also would not help anyone who is a victim of an intentional crime as a claim would be denied.

Killer cops

Per Snopes, police have shot and killed 984 people since April 2020. That is about 2.7 per day. Most of these don't make national news but many are now recorded so we can view what happened.

Three cases I have seen recently

-a boy being chased on foot for possibly shooting at cars. He tosses a gun and turns to show open hands. In less than a second he is shot once and killed.

-a female vet is entering through a window unarmed. Multiple cops are inside. Before even getting inside she is shot once and killed.

-police are called to a possible abuse/fight situation. There is a chaotic altercation. One girl with a knife tries to slash another girl then presses a third against a car and tries to stab her. She is shot four times and dies.

In none of these cases did police try to use less lethal weapons or de- escalation tactics. However in each case events were happening quickly.

Should any of these people be dead or should other attempts been made to subdue the victims?

Lexington and Concord

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17-year-old girl shot to death Thursday in Little Village

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And then there was one...

A security guard's job

Long long ago I worked security at a hospital. We had strict instructions that unless one of the parties with a hospital patient, we were not to intervene in any incident. We were to call the police and be witnesses.

If we chose to intervene in something between non-patients, we would be fired and be on our own for any legal or civil repercussions.

I can understand why the security guard who saw the attack in New York took no action, he likely is under similar if not stricter conditions. It has been reported he called the police. I did not see that on video, but he may have radioed a dispatcher who called.

That does not explain however why he did not render aid after the attack was over.

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