The gun prohibition movement appears to have hit a new low with an attack on insurance programs for gun owners that deals the race card, but the effort just might backfire as gun rights activists recall how the gun ban lobby has long demanded that gun owners be insured.
A group called Guns Down America was quoted in a story published by the New York Times calling such programs “murder insurance” and specifically targeting one plan offered by the National Rifle Association. Anti-gunners, perhaps frustrated that they have been unsuccessful battling the NRA on Capitol Hill, have resorted to insinuations about subliminal racism.
“The reason I call it murder insurance is because if you look at the way this is marketed, it’s really sold in the context of ‘There’s a threat around every corner, dear mostly-white NRA member,’ and that threat is either a black man or a brown man or some other kind of person of color,” Guns Down director Igor Volsky asserted, as quoted in the newspaper article.
But when it comes to insurance programs for gun owners, the NRA’s “Carry Guard” is somewhat late to the game. There are other programs that have been around longer, including the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network and U.S. Law Shield, all detailed recently by Gun Digest, a respected national firearms periodical.
USCCA founder and president Tim Schmidt was the keynoter at the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference awards luncheon in Dallas, an event attended by a diverse audience.
NRA, meanwhile, boasts a diverse membership that includes all races and genders.
But Guns Down has a website dubbed “stopmurderinsurance.org” that suggests such insurance programs might encourage legally-armed citizens to be more willing to shoot someone in self-defense.
For many years, one of the arguments put forth by the gun control lobby, which as essentially come out of the closet as a gun prohibition crusade, is that all gun owners in America should be required to have insurance. Now that there are such plans available to offer gun owners protection from prosecution for defending themselves, their families or others with firearms, anti-gunners are attacking the programs and insurance providers. These programs also offer training in firearms safety, something that no gun control group has ever done. The NRA has long been considered “the Red Cross of firearms safety” with a network of thousands of certified volunteer firearms instructors and training counselors, and a separate group of law enforcement firearms instructors.
Liberty Park Press reached out to Guns Down America, but has received no response.
Liberty Park also sought reaction from the NRA.
