Owning firearms can come with a lot of unexpected accidents or injuries. If you have a concealed carry permit, then you will never know when you may come across an incident where you have to use your firearm for personal defence.
The implications of a self-defence shooting can come with the following:
- Expense of posting bail bonds to stay out of prison. This may be as your case unfolds.
- Seizure of your weapons until the situation is resolved (assuming the outcome is in your favour)
- Loss of income due to the potential for custody and the inability to work
- Numerous court appearances
- Prohibitive costs related with retaining legal services
- Civil lawsuit leading to an unfavourable judgment resulting in thousands of dollars in damages
On a side note, different CCW insurance providers offer different types of coverage but generally the best concealed carry insurance providers such as USCCA will cover most damages in addition to providing legal support.
Why You Need It
Concealed carry insurance (also known as CCW or firearm liability insurance) is a form of low-cost coverage that offers legal protection if you use your recorded firearm in a self-defence situation. As more people carry firearms to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, an increasing number of gun owners are seeing the purchase of this insurance. Many policies also provide coverage for civil court proceedings, such as when you are the target of a lawsuit filed by an involved party.
The level and type of CCW coverage will vary based on the policy and the limits of your option. In some cases, the carrier will provide upfront funds for your legal defence in the trail of a gun-related self-defence occurrence. Other insurers will only reimburse you upon the resolve of your case. Coverage amounts vary widely and some policies may offer much higher limits than others.
Depending on the policy, you can also cover costs such as bail bonds, income interruption, attorney deposit fees, firearm replacement, and many more. A knowledgeable CCW insurance partner can help you determine the best coverages and amounts for your situation.
If you carry a firearm for self-defence or for the idea that you may one day need to use your firearm in self-defence, having some sort of concealed carry, or self-defence, insurance does makes sense.
Why so? Well, it’s kind of like the reason why you carry a gun to begin with: just in case. While you’ll likely never need your gun in self-defence situations, there are thousands of people who use their guns to defend their lives every year. Because of this simple fact, you carry your own gun for the purpose of “just in case”.
Just in case of what? Well, people are erratic and do stupid things. Some people feel as though what you have goes to them and are willing to hurt you in order to take it. Other people are on drugs and their sense of what is normal and not is very questionable. Still, other people have a strong desire to just hurt people.
Either way, no matter what kind of bad guy you may run into, you carry a gun on you to defend yourself against any of them if that time ever happens. So, where does the insurance come into involvement? Same thing, on a “just in case” basis. In case of what? All of the above situations. The difference is that your gun helps you protect yourself or loved ones from the bad guys while they are attacking you, and the insurance protects you from the bad stuff that can happen after that.
“Bad things” meaning you get sued or charged with murder. Or, maybe you accidentally said something really senseless to the police after you defended yourself and it’s now being used against you in court. There are more possible circumstances than we plan to name here, but hopefully you get the essence.
The point is that the advantages far outweigh the cost of enrolment — to any of the bigger companies out there with a track record of helping out their members. We don’t approve any one program over the others, but we ask you to take a look at online reviews to research which one is the best fit for you.
What CCW Insurance Usually Covers
What does self-defence insurance usually cover, beyond the obvious “cases of self-defense?” Coverage varies by different carrier, as some are more inclusive than others, but the one universal is legal expenses. However, this can be meant for criminal charges or for civil suits (and lawsuit insurance is a thing for industries and so on) or it can cover both.
There may be a total limit on coverage that covers both, or separate portions for criminal and civil defence. So while a person may not face charges as the result of a shooting ruled in self-defence or a neglectful discharge in a movie theatre, there may be a civil suit. Just like a criminal defence, a civil defence can easily broke a person. The latter can be equally as intimidating as the former. Additionally, civil suits have a less strict barrier to meet, as they need only a majority of evidence (meaning it looks like what the plaintiff says happened) rather than having to clear reasonable doubt.
Additionally, there are auxiliary coverages that not all carriers offer. For example, some CCW insurance plans offer funds for bail bonds. However, some do not. Some plans offer incomes for wages lost due to court appearances, and others do not. A court case may only take a matter of weeks to resolution. A court case can also take well more than 12 months before it concludes. Some concealed carry insurance plans are more of a legal subscription service than legitimate insurance. What you pay is membership dues, kind of like a gym or jelly of the month club, instead of a premium.
That gets you access to a network of lawyers that specialize in defence cases. If you have the need of one, you call and they get you in touch with a lawyer that can help defend you. Whether the amount a person is selected will be sufficient…that’s kind of hard to say. Some self-defence cases result in “only” a few hundred thousand in lawful fees. Some cases, such as that of George Zimmerman, can result in several million dollars in its legal costs.
Other Things You Need To Know About CCW Insurance
While the obligation portion of a typical homeowners’ or renters’ policy protects injuries and property damage continued by others, it does not apply to “intentional acts” concerning the use of a firearm. Most policies reject coverage in these situations, even in self-defence circumstances. Some plans do provide some coverage for injuries and damages follow-on from the use of “reasonable force” by the policyholder. However, this is the exemption rather than the rule.
CCW is one of the least expensive forms of insurance protection that are currently on the market. Depending on the coverages and limits you choose, you can get a comprehensive policy for only a few hundred dollars per annum. When you consider that it can save you a few thousands of dollars and help you evade jail time, these plans provide a cost-effective solution.
A firearm liability insurance plan can offer much more than your legal liability protection. Policies are available that include training prospects with a focus on safety and education. Examples include weekly training drills, life-saving checklists, access to online video libraries and interactive “ask an attorney” features that you can chat with experienced lawyers about gun-related legal problems.
Conclusion
At cursory glance, it’s a good idea to have concealed carry insurance, but what are the odds you’d ever have to use your policy? That’s a difficult question to answer very accurately. For newcomers, estimates on overall defensive gun usage vary enthusiastically, so it often depends on what study one consults.
Some estimations put the figure in the hundreds of thousands or even a few million instances of DGU – although that doesn’t count only shooting. A lot of times that includes merely drawing the gun – in a year. Other studies put it a lot lower. Furthermore, there is an economy of scale involved. For example, a person that dwells a desert isn’t really likely to need flood or hurricane insurance for their homes. Most violent crime, on the other hand, happens in densely-populated urban areas.
To put that another way, if a person lives in a rural suburb, they are a lot less likely to suffer from violent crime than they will be if they live in the city. Among many other factors. In simple words, the odds can be very low certainly. Some people think such insurance should be obligatory before a person can get a license to carry. A good number of people contribute to CCW insurance mostly because of the risks. Some people gave up on it because of the low odds that it will be needed anytime in the future. It’s all up to the individual firearms owner to decide though.
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