Anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s The Trace is reporting that the NRA has ended its Carry Guard program. Well, the insurance portion, anyway. The training aspect of Carry Guard remains, at least according to the web site.
From The Trace:
After two years of state investigations and numerous lawsuits, the National Rifle Association has stopped offering its Carry Guard self-defense insurance products.
The Carry Guard website has been stripped of all mentions of insurance. Contacted by The Trace, a representative confirmed that no new policies would be issued through Carry Guard, but said the NRA planned to launch a new insurance product in the future.
In addition to insurance, Carry Guard includes a training program, designed to teach gun owners how to “effectively confront today’s evolving conflict environment.”
Sure enough, site administrators have scrubbed any mention of “insurance” coverage.
Trouble right out of the gate
The Carry Guard insurance program ran into a host of trouble in numerous states. Government regulators challenged the so-called “insurance” product and sought to block the NRA from offering coverage in their respective states. New York State not only blocked the Carry Guard insurance program, but secured a $7 million penalty from the Lockton Agency which marketed and distributed the coverage for allegedly violating of New York State insurance regulations.
Anti-gun activists hated it as well. While they love the idea of requiring that gun owners buy insurance, they branded the NRA’s coverage as “murder insurance.”
From CBS News:
The National Rifle Association wants to financially cover gun owners who shoot another person, but some critics are asking if the new product is essentially “murder insurance.”
Gun-control advocates say the new insurance product could foster more violence and give gun owners a false sense of security to shoot first and ask questions later.
Some are dubbing it “murder insurance,” and say that rather than promoting personal responsibility and protection, it encourages gun owners to take action and not worry about the consequences. And, they say, it’s being marketed in a way that feeds on the nation’s racial divisions.
Carry Guard training hype
As for the training aspect of the program, NRA Carry Guard has maintained a very low profile. One would think if Carry Guard’s training curriculum lives up to the “best on the planet” hype as was originally touted, organizers would want to bring it to the masses across America.
That hasn’t happened.
As a seasoned trainer with two decades of experience, I had my reservations about the NRA Carry Guard training back in 2017. Everything from touting the military and law-enforcement resumes of their handful of instructors to the lack of legal considerations in their course descriptions created more questions than confidence for me and others.
Not only that, but other highly experienced and talented instructors and I inquired as to how to gain instructor status with the new program. None of us heard back from NRA. As one nationally-known trainer recently commented to me, “It’s almost as if the fix was in, huh?”
Of course, the over-the-top marketing from Ackerman McQueen didn’t help either.
I wrote this at the time as part of Editorial: NRA Carry Guard Training vs. ‘Standard’ Training:
Generally, I have nothing but respect for people in law enforcement and military. But what difference does it make whether an instructor learned their skills on the mean streets of Oakland or were “taught downrange” in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Far more important: can the instructor communicate the fundamentals effectively to everyday people, empowering them with the skills they need to avoid becoming a statistic.
Civilian self defense classes aren’t about teaching students how to kick in doors to hunt the Crips or the Taliban. We teach civilians the strategies and skills, including firearms proficiency, to avoid victimization in their daily lives. These skills and tactics will give them every advantage if the worst happens and they have to use their gun to protect innocent life.
Carry Guard has no proven track record of teaching civilians yet. Their instructors have an unspecified number of years teaching civilians self-defense. What’s more, legal considerations don’t even merit a mention in the Carry Guard course description.
My advice to The People of The Gun: before succumbing to the marketing pitch of this brand new program, sit this one out for a while. Read reviews of Carry Guard’s training here and elsewhere to see if the course merits your time and hard-earned cash.
If Carry Guard training proves itself worthy of the title “best on the planet,” word will travel fast.
Not only have I not seen a plethora of rave reviews of Carry Guard’s training program, the Carry Guard website doesn’t list a single course date or location.
Were NRA Carry Guard’s trainers Ackerman-McQueen employees? If so, that might explain today’s dearth of Carry Guard course availability.
its funny.. they call it murder insurance, but doesn’t NYC keep proposing that all gun owners carry liability insurance?
No, no, no, the only insurance you’re allowed to carry is insurance that pays the person you shot to compensate them for being injured by your despicable gun-owning ways. You’re not allowed to have a legal defense, because owning guns or using them is always wrong.
I’d buy anything that pair of Dana is selling. Man those are perky for such an old bird. Got to take a shower now. Glad the NRA, like beer and the NFL still tries to rule the world with the right pair of, of, um, advertising. Yea, that’s tit, er, it.
I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers.
No, just for being crackers.
Exactly the thing I thought of. Not just NYC, either. But they want gun owners to pay and not get anything. It’s a bizarre type of ‘insurance.’
It’s the same as “uninsured” and “under-insured” motorist coverage. Only pays someone else with no insurance when the accident is their fault. So, drive illegally and hit an innocent…. and you get paid. Wouldn’t you like to know whose bright idea that was? Bizarre indeed, but par for the course here on bizarro world
That is not how uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance works. Your liability coverage pays the guy you hit. Your collision coverage pays you when you hit a guy. That guy’s liability coverage pays you when he hits you. Your uninsured coverage pays you when he doesn’t have liability.
The only time your coverage writes someone else a check is when you are at fault, and it comes out of the liability portion of your insurance package.
Libturds demanded gun owners buy liability insurance. Liability insurance is offered and libturds call it murder insurance. Seems to me that the problem is not insurance, it’s libturds
Liability insurance pays other people’s bills for your mistakes. Carry Guard doesn’t pay other people’s bills, it pays your bills. Distinct difference.
When this whole carry insurance thing started I regarded it as a scam. Turns out I was right.
Makes me glad I stayed with USCCA carry insurance.
Sounds like the NRA rushed to market before they were ready. Probably just saw dollar signs and wanted that income ASAP.
“………Anti-gun activists hated it as well. While they love the idea of requiring that gun owners buy insurance, they branded the NRA’s coverage as “murder insurance………………”
I would be rich if I had a nickle for every time I heard someone use the car analogy/insurance argument. Then the same people attack the NRA program. IIRC didn’t the NRA disallow other similar programs to appear at a convention few years ago? Bit of a dust-up there, now this.
FWIW I am a member of ACLDF so no dog in NRA fight.
The ACLDF Advisory board is top notch.
2017.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/04/21/breaking-uscca-disinvited-nra-annual-meeting/
Only doctors are allowed to have murder insurance. Because their intentions are good.
Carry Guard is the straw that broke Wayne La PeePee’s back,the need for greed.
The stupid on purpose NRA torpedoed themselves when they use the word “insurance” . Legally you can’t get an insurance payment until AFTER your court case is settled. So all your expenses are your responsibility until the verdict is rendered.
I don’t believe they (uscca) use the word “insurance” in the promotional material.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/
There are other companies you can get “pre trial” protection from. But its not “insurance”. Its “protection” from being railroaded by the justice system.
I never liked Carry Guard. That is not the NRA’s wheel house. And it was a warning to me that the NRA was just getting greedly.
Maybe their plan was to BUY their own private jets with the money?
It was REALLY BAD insurance
What do you mean? What was bad about it? Just asking. Really would like to know.
Take a look at this: https://www.concealedcarry.com/self-defense-gun-owner-insurance-programs-compared/. The biggest issue was, as mentioned in other comments here, that NRA Carry Guard was 20% coverage upfront and 80% reimbursement. You defense lives and dies with the money upfront.
In another life I sold insurance. Life,health,property,casualty etc. The NRA spiel was some retarded chit. As a member I never felt compelled to even investigate them. I suspect it was ALL about greed. Another nail in the coffin…
Just trying to understand. Why was it bad insurance? Was never sure how to evaluate carry insurance. Any info you can provide is appreciated.
Take a look at this: https://www.concealedcarry.com/self-defense-gun-owner-insurance-programs-compared/. The biggest issue was, as mentioned in other comments here, that NRA Carry Guard was 20% coverage upfront and 80% reimbursement. You defense lives and dies with the money upfront.
The greed and incompetence was showing well before the REALLY BAD INSURANCE scheme. Marketing wine and gold investments for example.
On the other hand if they’d managed to get Dana Loesch to do her NRA ads topless, they’d of done a hell of a lot better.
Maybe. It would have been popular but a lot of the Fudd crowd would have gone into spasms over it.
Gold, wine, weird jewelry and watches, and engraved Elvis/John Wayne/commemorative guns are all 3rd party companies paying for the privilege of appearing in the magazines and being the official X of the NRA. It’s good fundraising. It’s like all the companies that are official X of the Olympics or NFL.
Two years after its inception, I guess the NRA has done enough damage to the self defense insurance industry and racked up enough debt to call it quits.
While Marion Hammer & Co go around and call NRA Board members (that question the NRA leadership’s mismanagement and corruption) unprofessional, the NRA’s entire Carry Guard program is an example of real unprofessional behavior.
The NRA leadership established the NRA Carry Guard in 2017 as at 100% copycat of the USCCA, a training program, an insurance and an annual expo. In its two year’s of operation, it only created financial losses and legal liabilities for the NRA and even for its competitors, like the USCCA. The NRA told the USCCA two weeks before the 2017 NRA Annual Meeting that their booth was canceled. The USCCA hasn’t been allowed to exhibit at the NRA Annual Meeting since, as it competed with NRA Carry Guard. Thanks to the NRA, USCCA’s self defense “insurance” is not available in NY and WA anymore.
Dana’s boobs, Colion Noir and many other NRA spokespersons have shilled for the NRA Carry Guard Insurance, despite the fact that it was the least attractive on the market. Heck, the NRA even convinced James Yeager and Pat McNamara to shill for this piss-poor product that reimburses you mostly (80%) after you have won your legal battle. NRA Carry Guard Training program was and still is non-existent!
What a trainwreck.
Call it cruel but if Michael Bloomberg announced he had advanced cancer, I would dance and celebrate. He hates America and only serves to advance evil causes that rob American’s of their freedom.
The NRA flew too close to the sun with this insurance nonsense.
Imagine if instead, they’d tried to position themselves as a social media hub for gun owners or content-publishers, or as a banking/credit institution for firearm transactions, how damn rich they’d be today.
But no; gotta chase the ‘dubious insurance’ dragon for some idiot reason. Probably because it’s easy to embezzle from an insurance fund that never pays out.
No loss. The insurance part of Carry Guard was, to be overly charitable, poorly designed. Two of the worst flaws:
It required you to raise 80% of your legal defense costs yourself. If you were acquitted, they would reimburse you. Of course, coming up with 80% of a half million dollar legal bill is beyond the ability of most people. A poorly funded defense is more likely to fail than a well funded one. That reduces the chances of Carry Guard’s having to pay off.
It only covered defense using a firearm. Split a home invader’s skull with a fireplace poker? Carry Guard wouldn’t help you. Furthermore, attacks that don’t justify defense with deadly force are many times more frequent than attacks that do. You need legal assistance for them, too.
The accusation that self defense insurance is “murder insurance” is, of course, a barefaced lie. All it does (maybe) is guarantee you competent legal representation after an incident. Self defense insurance won’t shield you from a guilty verdict and the resulting punishment if the evidence is against you. The critics appear to believe that it’s acceptable for a rich person to hire a good lawyer but not the rest of us. I included the qualifier because the insurance programs examine your case before paying out. They will deny coverage if they believe it wasn’t legitimate self defense.
“They will deny coverage if they believe it wasn’t a legitimate self defense”….that begs the question …does a prohibited person who uses a firearm to repel a home invader be denied coverage if all the evidence shows a righteous use of deadly force to stop the threat of death or great bodily harm…..seems to me even a convicted felon has a right to self defense …..the only thing the home defender could be found guilty of is illegal possession of a firearm by a felon…..it may be a moot point as I don’t think USCCA, ACLDN or US Law Shield will accept those memberships of prohibited persons…..stay safe out there.
I don’t know about the other programs but ACLDN has said very clearly that they will not defend someone who is armed illegally. That means they won’t help a prohibited person if he used a gun but will help him if he used something else that he can legally possess such as a knife or a baseball bat.
“legitimate self defense” is like “legitimate rape,” methinks; you know it when you see it, lol
Bingo! Much like the NRA in general, Carry Guard has huge incentive to see their customers lose.
“Real” legal insurance would be a form of retainer to guarantee services, not this goofy conditional reimbursement crap. I don’t blame governments from trying to ban what is clearly a scam.
I’m glad I have the USCCA insurance.
It’s actually not even an insurance product.
It is more of a mutual legal fund.
That’s why insurance commissioners have no regulatory power over them.
Wrong! The WA State Insurance Commissioner shut down USCCA in that state claiming USCCA illegally covers illegal acts. The anti gun Commissioner apparently deems the use of a firearm for self defense as a criminal act.
I just like Dana’s rack. Didn’t have any interest in reading the article.
Yeah, things look pretty good.
In a more just world we whouldn’t need something like carry guard. But if the show trial of George Zimmerman told us anything it that no matter how much evidence a partisan DA will expend all the resources under his or command to destroy you. And even if you beat the rap, you’re still stuck paying for the ride. Last I heard Zimmerman got stuck with more 2 million in legal costs.
Zimmerman will never be able to repay his defense team. I’m sure they knew that going in but the injustice of his prosecution was more than they could tolerate.
Carry Guard only paid if you got off completely free, otherwise you were still on the hook. Total scam.
If I want to see nice assets up front I’ll go to a strip club. I’ll definitely see better stuff, get less attitude and know exactly where my money is going.
I went with CCW Safe, have never regretted the decision.
They should have stuck with their existing training programs that supplement the concealed carry training offered by other organizations. I think there was a great need for that, but they’ve blown that too when they tried to make it online training. I’m letting my pistol instructor certification go this year.
At this point, what I want to know is;
How much money did Carry Guard bring in via premiums?
How much money did Carry Guard pay out to policy holders?
If a product has anything to do with or is affiliated in any way, shape, or form with the NRA, I wouldn’t buy it with your money. They won’t get another cent from me until Wayne and all the other dead weight are shown the door. If LaPukierre gets a golden parachute of any kind, they’ve sealed their fate with me. No donations of any kind ever again. Enough is enough. GOA SAF and my local and state Pro 2A groups are where my donations are going. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.