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Insurers dropping Kansas schools over concealed-carry law for teachers
At least three insurance companies have refused to renew their coverage policies for Kansas schools in the wake of a new law allowing teachers to carry firearms on campus, The Des Moines Register reported on Sunday.
“We’ve been writing school business for almost 40 years,” EMC Insurance Companies vice president for business development Mick Lovell told the Register. “One of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any on-site armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers. Our guidelines have not recently changed.”
Lovell’s company provided insurance to almost 90 percent of the state’s school districts before pulling its coverage. Two other companies, Continental Western Group and Wright Specialty Insurance, followed suit. The new law, which allows teachers and other personnel to carry concealed arms inside school buildings, took effect on July 1, and is similar to measures in South Dakota and Tennessee passed as a response to the December 2012 school shooting attack in Newtown, Connecticut.
State Sen. Forrest Knox (R), who advocated for the law, told the Register that only 300 of 3,000 counties and municipalities in Kansas had filed exemption requests with Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R), and that a brokerage group, identified by another state official as the Insurance Management Association, had agreed to provide insurance for Independence Community College, Labette Community College and Neosho County Community College, three schools in his district.
“I’m not an insurance expert, but it’s hard for me to believe that if schools and other public buildings allow law-abiding citizens to carry that that increases risk,” Knox told the Register. “It’s news to me.”
The New York Times reported that school district administrators in Oregon are balking after the state School Boards Association, which manages liability coverage for the vast majority of school districts there, instituted an additional premium worth $2,500 for every faculty member who has a firearm on campus.
“Pretty much every last bit of our money is budgeted,” Jackson County official Scott Whitman told the Times. “To me, that could be quite an impediment to putting this forward.”
The Times also reported that a plan to deputize teachers in Noble County, Indiana, which would have granted them permission to carry firearms, never came to fruition after an insurance company refused to provide coverage for schools taking part.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/08/insurers-dropping-kansas-schools-over-concealed-carry-law-for-teachers/
“We’ve been writing school business for almost 40 years,” EMC Insurance Companies vice president for business development Mick Lovell told the Register. “One of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any on-site armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers. Our guidelines have not recently changed.”
Lovell’s company provided insurance to almost 90 percent of the state’s school districts before pulling its coverage. Two other companies, Continental Western Group and Wright Specialty Insurance, followed suit. The new law, which allows teachers and other personnel to carry concealed arms inside school buildings, took effect on July 1, and is similar to measures in South Dakota and Tennessee passed as a response to the December 2012 school shooting attack in Newtown, Connecticut.
State Sen. Forrest Knox (R), who advocated for the law, told the Register that only 300 of 3,000 counties and municipalities in Kansas had filed exemption requests with Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R), and that a brokerage group, identified by another state official as the Insurance Management Association, had agreed to provide insurance for Independence Community College, Labette Community College and Neosho County Community College, three schools in his district.
“I’m not an insurance expert, but it’s hard for me to believe that if schools and other public buildings allow law-abiding citizens to carry that that increases risk,” Knox told the Register. “It’s news to me.”
The New York Times reported that school district administrators in Oregon are balking after the state School Boards Association, which manages liability coverage for the vast majority of school districts there, instituted an additional premium worth $2,500 for every faculty member who has a firearm on campus.
“Pretty much every last bit of our money is budgeted,” Jackson County official Scott Whitman told the Times. “To me, that could be quite an impediment to putting this forward.”
The Times also reported that a plan to deputize teachers in Noble County, Indiana, which would have granted them permission to carry firearms, never came to fruition after an insurance company refused to provide coverage for schools taking part.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/08/insurers-dropping-kansas-schools-over-concealed-carry-law-for-teachers/
I don't trust anyone, criminal or otherwise, with guns around my kids. I never had them at home when they were growing up for a reason, and that same reason applies to school. Let them keep the guns outside or around the perimeter of the school.
I had at least a couple teachers who were potential Zimmermans just waiting to slip through the cracks. I also had many fine teachers who I would trust to defend my children, armed or unarmed, just as those teachers at Sandy Hook did.
"pass rigorous training and mental evaluation." fine, but I think parents should have some say as well. Of course, if all parents showed that kind of interest in their kids and their kids' schools, we would never have gotten to this point and wouldn't even be having this conversation.
"pass rigorous training and mental evaluation." fine, but I think parents should have some say as well. Of course, if all parents showed that kind of interest in their kids and their kids' schools, we would never have gotten to this point and wouldn't even be having this conversation.
I'm with Glass in regards to some teachers being far more dangerous in the classroom armed with the cirriculum they are supposed to teach.
How many teachers and administrators were there on campus on that horrible day in Sandy Hook? 30???? Obviously it is a hypothetical question and analogy, but what if 3 of them were trained and armed? How many lives could have been saved?
How many teachers and administrators were there on campus on that horrible day in Sandy Hook? 30???? Obviously it is a hypothetical question and analogy, but what if 3 of them were trained and armed? How many lives could have been saved?
I've reread the article and carefully read all the comments. I am still completely and totally on the fence with this issue, I will admit. As a mother, I recognize and see the need to do anything and everything possible to protect my child (our children in general). I am not wild about the idea of teachers being able to carry, or at least not all of them. I think R has the right idea with there needing to be appropriate evaluations. However, on the flip side, armed and properly trained guards may be the right solution? No question we need to protect schools and children, I guess the question is how to best do it? Mind you, some of the concealed laws in the US scare me in general (ie: being allowed to have a gun in a bar - I still feel alcohol and guns are a bad mix, just me though).
I guess at the end of this I feel incredibly sad that this conversation even needs to happen. It's sad that our children cannot be safe in school now. They are innocent, and should not even have to be subjected to the reason for this debate. I try to picture how I might have felt having armed guards or weapon carrying teachers - it would have terrified me. But again, there is the reality that there are people out there who will and do murder our children, and we have to protect them. This is a tough debate for me for sure.
I guess at the end of this I feel incredibly sad that this conversation even needs to happen. It's sad that our children cannot be safe in school now. They are innocent, and should not even have to be subjected to the reason for this debate. I try to picture how I might have felt having armed guards or weapon carrying teachers - it would have terrified me. But again, there is the reality that there are people out there who will and do murder our children, and we have to protect them. This is a tough debate for me for sure.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think all teachers should be allowed to carry a weapon. I don’t have a problem with it as long as they pass rigorous training and mental evaluation. Some Teachers shouldn’t even be allowed in the Classroom let alone with a weapon.
My high school teachers were by and large idiots. I would meet some of them 20 years after graduation and almost all of them hadn't progressed one iota. The thought of those numbskulls carrying guns in school is real real real scary.
Nobody is saying that "everyone" would be carrying. Its a choice. And the only scenario that I can see where it would pay off to have a couple of armed and trained teachers would be a school shooting.
Minutes seem like hours in situations like school shootings. Having to wait for the police or swat to show up means more deaths.
Minutes seem like hours in situations like school shootings. Having to wait for the police or swat to show up means more deaths.
Insurance companies tend to think with their bottom lines. If they say it's X number of $$$ riskier to have teachers carry I tend to believe them. I don't have to like it, but I believe them.
“One of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any on-site armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers. Our guidelines have not recently changed.”
“One of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any on-site armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers. Our guidelines have not recently changed.”
A new Repug Imsurance company will step into the picture and provide coverage at a 25% increase in premiums.
Having a teacher carry a Gun is simply stupid. I can not think of any situation where a teacher having a gun would make any difference in a school shooting.
Put them at the entrance if you like or surround the gounds, but in the school with the kids and everyone carrying is something you will never convince me is safer. I can see a teacher having a bad day, going postal and you got a old fashioned gunfight amongst kids possibly causing double the carnage when you dont know who the bad guy is? Maybe its my age but I aint buying into that.
Having a teacher carry a Gun is simply stupid. I can not think of any situation where a teacher having a gun would make any difference in a school shooting.
Put them at the entrance if you like or surround the gounds, but in the school with the kids and everyone carrying is something you will never convince me is safer. I can see a teacher having a bad day, going postal and you got a old fashioned gunfight amongst kids possibly causing double the carnage when you dont know who the bad guy is? Maybe its my age but I aint buying into that.
Tough decision to make. Assault a defenseless school and commit Mass Murder or risk getting my brains blown out in the Corridor for attempting it?
The thing is, if they were wise, you'd never know who is carrying and who is not. (I'd guess there are a few that are carrying already....)
I guess I have really mixed feelings about teachers being armed on campus. Mind you, we have not yet experienced what some of the US schools have experienced with these spree shooters. Note the word yet as sadly, I'm sure it will happen eventually, and I have no doubt it will convince me that teachers carrying is a necessary thing to do. Sad though that it does seem necessary.
Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again. Didn't they even consider the liability?
Naw, do everything you can to keep schools as vulnerable as possible. Isn't there some liability for the districts leaving schools vulnerable? There has to be....
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