Special Limits Applicability to Guns and Gun Parts

November 7, 2010

We have a Farmowner's Policy with a theft claim on personal property. The insured dabbles in gun repair as a hobby working on his own guns or those of family or friends. No money exchanges hands and this is not a business. During the theft, some gun parts were stolen including: trigger assemblies, spare barrels, stocks and foregrips, etc. Our policy has a special limit of liability of $1,000 for "Theft of guns." My initial thought was that things like scopes, gun cases, cleaning kits, etc. would not fall under this limit because they are not guns but that gun parts might fall under that. However, the parts were not on a gun at the time of the loss so I'm not sure. I read the analysis on the limit in one of your articles so now I'm thinking that the special limit would only apply to entire guns and not the other parts.

Kentucky Subscriber

As long as the policy reads that the special limit applies to "theft of guns" and not "theft of guns and equipment", then the limit applies only to intact guns. While triggers and barrels are parts of guns, until they are on a gun, they are not considered to be a gun. An insured could use the pieces for a piece of modern art instead. The triggers, barrels, scopes should be treated as any other personal property.

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