Over the past several years, the United States has suffered multiple mass shootings. Most of the shootings occurred at schools, places of worship or other public places. After each shooting, one side calls for gun control and increasingly strict regulations while the opposing side argues that arming more people for the safety of all is the way to address the situation. From time to time the issue of liability insurance arises, should gun owners be required to maintain some sort of liability insurance?

This idea has a number of flaws; the main one being that insurance does not provide coverage for intentional harm to others. Specialty carriers may provide coverage for defense when the insured acts in self-defense due to fear for his life. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has a policy that provides coverage for accidental shootings that occur while hunting, at hunt or gun clubs, or on supervised ranges. That policy also does not provide coverage for intentional acts to cause harm. While the basic liability policy does not cover self-defense, the coverage can be added by endorsement. Fearing for one's life and defending oneself is seen differently than randomly and intentionally shooting others. This coverage includes legal defense for charges arising from shooting another person in self-defense. An insured may be criminally charged until the case is reviewed. Here lies the rub.

The insurance policy was developed in April 2017 and the NRA developed an aggressive campaign to market the insurance. A gun-advocacy group noticed the insurance and believed that the NRA was illegally acting as an insurance broker, and filed a complaint with the New York Insurance Department. Upon investigating, the department stated that the program broke the law as it was protecting against “acts of intentional wrongdoing”. As a result, the program was shut down in New York, and the carriers who were underwriting and issuing the NRA policies, Lockton Companies and Chubb, were fined $7 million and $1.3 million respectively. Both companies have severed relations with the NRA. The NRA's stance is that this review by the insurance department stems from the views of Governor Cuomo and his displeasure with the NRA as a whole. The NRA has sued Lockton alleging breach of contract.