In my piece Let’s Stop The Armed Teachers Plans In Florida And Other States, I mentioned how in Kansas in 2013, the sole insurance provider for public schools, EMC, said it would not insure any school that armed teachers.
Other insurance carriers may have come forward at the time to provide insurance for these armed teachers, but their rates would have been higher, because of the greater liability risks. The combination of no insurance, or very expensive insurance, stopped armed teachers from being placed in public schools back in 2013.
NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action saw this insurance roadblock and developed a plan. Someone suggested to lawmakers in Kansas that they insert an amendment in a bill that says “Insurance companies can’t refuse to provide a policy to a school district with armed teachers.”
Next, they added a passage that says the insurance company cannot charge unfair discriminatory premiums, policy fees or rates. This is an attempt force the insurance carriers to eat the cost of the higher premiums necessary to cover the additional risk of gun accidents.
The NRA’s strength isn’t just money, it’s also their legislative strategy and politically active base. I only found out about this hearing on Friday. I would love to get all the new activists in Kansas to call members on the committee to say, “We don’t want armed teachers. Period.”
Rep. Jene Vickrey (R) Dist 6 NRA Rating A
785 296-7748, jene.vickrey@house.ks.gov
Vice Chair Rep. Willie Dove (R) Dist. 38.NRA Rating A
Ranking Minority Member Rep. Cindy Neighbor (D) Dist 18 785 296-7690. Cindy.Neighbor@house.ks.gov NRA Rating F
I hope that the insurance industry lobbyists have been calling the members on this committee prior to this hearing. They know what the general public doesn’t, the massive costs associated with negligent discharge of firearms. The media calls them gun accidents, but it is negligence that is the deciding factor when it comes to liability.
There is a lot of negligence. According to the National Center for Injury Protection and Control, each year more than 70,000 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms for non-fatal gunshot injuries.
The Center for Disease Control says gun accidents cause more than 15 percent of the injuries and deaths from gunshot wounds.
Why Aren’t Gun Owners Required to be Financially Responsible?
Here’s a relevant story about negligence around guns involving the Rep. Willie Dove, He is vice chair of the Insurance Committee deciding on arming teachers tomorrow in Kansas.
Kansas Rep. Dove leaves loaded handgun in committee meeting room
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| On January 26, 2017 Rep. Willie Dove (R) Bonner Springs stormed out of an House Education Committee Hearing, leaving his handgun behind. Chris Neal/The Capital Journal |
In this case no one was injured, but let’s say a legislator dropped his gun and it discharged. (This happens, in New Hampshire in 2017 a state legislator’s loaded gun fell from her waistband to the floor in a committee hearing with children present. In 2013 an aide to Missouri’s House speaker left a loaded handgun in a Capital bathroom in Jefferson City, Mo.The aide resigned in 2013.)
Or let’s say a child got that handgun and fired it and hit someone. Just one of the 70,000 gun injuries last year.
But we are talking about insurance here so some questions:
- Did Dove have insurance to cover this incident? If so, how big was it?
The insurance committee knows all about exemptions, they know that when a third party accidently fires the policy owners’ gun. most homeowners’ policies will not cover those costs.
There is no law requiring Dove to have a gun liability insurance, but he might have and it might not have been enough. Was he covered by the state? How big is that policy? Who pays? The taxpayers. How much are the state policy premiums for people carrying guns?
How much training did Dove have? Where there any consequences for his negligence in maintaining control of his handgun? If teachers don’t have enough training and made a mistake with a weapon, who pays?
If a teacher, who is part of this SAFER program, makes a mistake with a weapon while at school the school district will be financially responsible for the consequences.
Are the school districts prepared for this? What do their risk managers say?
Are the risk managers for the cities and school districts demanding to know the real costs of this program?
BTW, in Tennessee the legislators tried to shift the financial responsibility to the “volunteer” armed teachers suggesting they get their own insurance, but did not offer to pay for it. The lawmakers then voted to immunity from liability to the state university system. This is a law that hasn’t been challenged in court, yet.
Much of the discussion on arming teachers focuses on an active shooter scenario. What this premise fails to consider is this program would create thousands of people who are now handling firearms. For 100’s of thousands of days and hours there is NEVER an active shooter. Yet during this time there are thousands of people who are now handling firearms. People who carry concealed guns, and train people know that humans make mistakes.
How Much Did the Gun Accident in YOUR School District Cost?
I wanted to give people a specific example of medical costs in gun wounds, but HIPAA rules won’t allow me to get details on this case from Florida, so I’ve taken the average costs for the first 48 hours after a shooting from emergency department study from a Johns Hopkin’s You can look up a gun accident in your school district, city or state here.
Here’s an example from Florida:
“During the investigation we found that an uncle that was visiting had accidentally, while clearing his weapon, the weapon had went off and it struck the little girl,” said Captain Virgil Watson, Jackson Co. Sheriff’s Office.Officials said the girl was life flighted to a Panama City hospital but later transported to the Pensacola area for pediatric attention. The child was struck by the bullet in the lower part of her body.Officials have not released any names at this time because they are still investigating, but seem to think that no criminal activity took place.
$ 18,447 Transportation Life Flight: Marianna to Panama City 55 miles
$ 95,887 Treating wound: emergency room costs only with overnight stay
$179,565 Discharged to another medical facility and incurred costs (Pensacola transport 91 miles)
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The average cost for this kind of injury to a child needing multiple surgeries is about 1.5 million dollars
By state statute schools must to have liability insurance or they can’t open. Insurance costs are part of the school budget, if premiums go up, schools need to either change the scope of coverage, or change what is covered.
The school districts that want this program either need to get more money from the city and state to pay for the premiums, or make cuts in other places.
The NRA has been very clever in how they have approached getting armed teachers in the classrooms. They have created a demand for a program that is ineffective. They have convinced lawmakers to take resources from other areas to pay for this non-solution. They have introduced new liability into an environment which will generate them revenue from gun sales and training courses. Yet they haven’t paid the price of any of this.
The legislators in office now need to see that the rules are changing. A pro-gun vote is not a safe vote. A legislator cannot expect the people to pay for a bogus solution to the gun violence problem.
If I was in the insurance industry, (or the transportation industry) and I saw politicians hurting my businesses in order to suck up to the gun lobby, I would stop funding those people.
