Are you sick and tired of paying to defend yourself in court after you kill someone? Are you concerned that one day you might have to stop killing people? Well don't put down that gun yet, friend, because the National Rifle Association has a deal for you.
For the bargain-basement price of just $165, you can get an insurance policy that will pay up to $100,000 in legal fees associated with the homicidal defense of your home or car or anywhere you feel like somebody was maybe going to hurt you. It's available only to NRA members, who have kept it under wraps for what looks to be a decade. Then editorial cartoonist Matt Bors found out.
"Yes, it's true. An NRA-endorsed insurance plan can help you out in the event of shooting someone dead for self-defense, real or imagined," he wrote on his blog this morning. "Now, this is basically a scam. Even the horniest gun fetishist, itching to down a brown burglar[,] is unlikely to ever actually need this insurance... Another thought: Could having self-defense insurance itself come into play in a trial? It seems to betray a certain mindset."
The cartoon is available online and features the lines "Self-defense doesn't end when their life does!" and "We'll cover your court fees for: killing burglars, killing people you think are burglars, killing people who may very well intend to burgle."
Of course, the NRA had to do something -- it pushed hard for "Stand Your Ground" in Florida and other states, and a new study finds that the law doesn't do anything at all to deter crime -- but it could very well be increasing homicides.
A recent study from the Tampa Bay Times found all kinds of ridiculous invocations of the defense earlier, and we wrote back in March about how the law is getting pulled into bar fights and road-rage incidents that aren't at all what the law's framers had in mind.
I called the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action for comment; they said someone would have to call me back. We've been playing phone tag the past day or so, but I'll gladly update when we manage to get in touch.
(Fun fact: When I called to follow up today, a song was playing in the background when a spokeswoman answered. I am not making this up. It was "Live and Let Die.")
