New York State’s Department of Financial Services has filed civil charges against the National Rifle Association over some of the Carry Guard insurance products sold in the state. Translation, the Empire State’s ultra-partisan, hoplophobic government officials want the NRA to fork over millions of dollars to the state in “civil” fines to make this “complaint” go away.
Obviously, anything the NRA pays in fines to state regulators is cash it can’t use to advance gun rights and the shooting sports. Or buy more $20,000 suits for Wayne LaPierre.
New York’s financial regulator on Wednesday filed civil charges accusing the National Rifle Association of offering insurance to its members without a license and concealing how it routinely kept some of their premiums for itself.
The state Department of Financial Services plans to seek civil fines and other remedies from the gun rights group at an April 6 hearing.
It announced the charges even as it defends against a May 2018 NRA lawsuit accusing the regulator and Governor Andrew Cuomo of “blacklisting” the group and threatening its survival by pressuring banks and insurers to stop doing business with it.
“Today’s announcement is about politics, not protecting consumers,” William Brewer, a lawyer for the NRA, said in a statement. “The NRA acted appropriately at all times.”
That’s NRA attorney William Brewer, a guy who loves to donate to radical gun hating pols like Beto O’Rourke, Hillary Clinton, Dick Durbin, Joaquin Castro and Sheldon Whitehouse. He was fined $177,000 for misconduct in a 2016 Texas case. But he’s LaPierre’s hi-priced choice to defend the Association in this and other legal matters.
Wednesday’s charges focus mainly on the group’s alleged ties since 2000 to insurance broker Lockton Cos, including the sale of 28,005 policies to New Yorkers and the NRA’s receipt of more than $1.8 million in associated royalties and fees.
Lockton’s policies included the NRA-branded “Carry Guard,” which the regulator said offered policyholders unlawful liability coverage, including for criminal defense costs and “intentional” conduct in shooting incidents.
So people like Governor Cuomo support the idea of requiring liability insurance for gun owners. But when a company comes along and offers insurance coverage for legal expenses in self-defense cases, that defies the tyrants’ plans.