The NRA says New York State’s “blacklisting campaign” is to blame for them losing their liability insurance, and is now trying to sue the state for money. Chubb Ltd., the insurance company that provided the Carry Guard program, said it wouldn’t renew the insurance for “any price.”
New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) ruled that Carry Guard was illegal because it gave liability protection to gun owners for acts where there was “intentional wrongdoing.”
The insurance policy is underwritten by Illinois Union Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Chubb Ltd., the world’s largest publicly-traded property and casualty insurance property, and Lockton Affinity, LLC, a subsidiary of Lockton Companies, Inc., the world’s largest privately held insurance brokerage firm is the policy’s administrator.
One gun control group has referred to the Carry Guard program as “murder insurance.”
Both Chubb and Lockton, two companies with all-white senior executive leaderships, who had to pay fines of $1.3 million, and $7.7 million respectively, stated they were dropping the gun insurance program earlier this year. The insurance coverage through them was for gun businesses, trade shows and personal use covering legal and financial issues, and it offered free NRA membership.
Financial regulators, who are also investigating other insurance companies such as Lloyd’s, discovered that Lockton paid the NRA group royalties and profit-sharing, even though the NRA is not a New York State licensed broker. The offer of free membership valued at more than $25 (NRA’s is $40) is illegal.
However, the numbers of NRA gun owners that use the policy and also support the NRA is questionable. While gun sales have been rising since 2013, gun ownership has dropped significantly (about 20-30 percent), with more gun-free houses becoming a norm. And, most of the guns in the U.S. (over 100 million) are owned by super-gun owners (40-140 guns per person), which make up only 3 percent of owners nationwide.
The NRA is also one of the largest lobbying groups in the country. They spent $61 million to back mostly Republican Congress candidates, and $31 million in advertising during Donald Trump’s campaign, but, apparently, overspent by $46 million.
The organization claims that without general liability coverage, the “NRA cannot maintain its physical premises, convene off-site meetings and events, operate educational programs or hold rallies, conventions and assemblies.” It further said it might have to stop producing NRAtv and magazines.
NRAtv usually features spokeswoman Dana Loesch in videos promoting the organization’s agenda. In April, Loesch said that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “recognized how important it was for everyone to be able to defend themselves.” And, NRAtv was also used to bash the Parkland school shooting survivors. Since the Parkland shooting, many organizations have cut ties.
There’s no definitive answer as to how many members the NRA has, but they appear to have troubles with revenue: according to public information about their funding and membership revenues, Russian funding, an increase in the membership cost in recent years, and a single $20 million donation, along with their average revenue of $128 million since 2004, did not beat the spike of $228 in 2007.
The NRA has been boasting about their 5 million members since 2013’s Sandy Hook aftermath, and again at this year’s convention a sign that their membership may be stagnant.
Cuomo has waved off the NRA’s lawsuit as “a futile and desperate attempt to advance its dangerous agenda to sell more guns.”
The state has filed a motion to dismiss the case, and a hearing is scheduled for next month.
