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.