Image via NRA Carry Guard Twitter.

The NRA rolled out its “Carry Guard” insurance program in 2017 with great fanfare. Now, a mere two years later, not only has Josh Powell’s brainstorm ceased accepting new customers, but existing participants have received notices of cancellation.

Andrew Branca over at The Law of Self-Defense reports on the death rattle of the NRA’s supposedly premier legal self-defense program.

I received two notices today regarding the NRA. One notice was forwarded to me by a member of the NRA Carry Guard program, notifying them that their Carry Guard coverage had been cancelled. The other notice was received by me personally, directly from the NRA, and suggesting the organization is badly in need of re-alignment and lacks capable leadership.

Yes, the cancellation notification came poorly worded, too. Here it is:

Your current Carry Guard policy is being non-renewed. Chubb, the carrier for Carry Guard insurance will no longer be writing policies for this program.

Below is a cancellation endorsement for your policy. If you have already cancelled your policy, please disregard this notice.

We appreciate your business.

Non-renewed? An interesting choice of words.

The second notice that Mr. Branca alluded to is both sad and pathetic. Again, from the Law of Self-Defense:

Separately, and coincidentally, today I received an email from the NRA, addressed to me personally.

Was it about NRA Carry Guard, and the steps that are being taken to make sure that something like this never happens again?

Of course not.

It’s an invitation to join the NRA wine club. I kid you not…

Branca goes on to savage NRA’s leadership for its apparent priorities.

The priorities of any organization, however, are set and maintained and pursued by leaders. When I see the NRA effectively manage a wine club, and disastrously mismanage a program like Carry Guard, I see an organization plagued with unforgivably bad leadership.

It looks like training encompasses the remaining content on today’s NRA Carry Guard’s website. But even that information seems terribly dated.

In fact, at their “NRA Carry Guard Daily,” the last post comes from nearly a year ago on November 18, 2018.  In the story about small guns, it discusses, among others, a “Kel-Tek P32.”

As for the “best on the planet” training they tout…their website doesn’t show a calendar of classes or a way to sign up for them.

Indeed, it looks like my advice for gun owners offered shortly after the NRA announced their new “best on the planet” Carry Guard training proved valuable.

My advice to The People of The Gun: before succumbing to the marketing pitch of this brand new program, sit this one out for a while. Read reviews of Carry Guard’s training here and elsewhere to see if the course merits your time and hard-earned cash.

If Carry Guard training proves itself worthy of the title “best on the planet,” word will travel fast. If it turns out to be like the NRA’s “blended learning” debacle introduced a couple of years ago, word of that will travel just as fast.

Interestingly, in the headline article at the NRA’s Carry Guard website Evolution Of NRA Carry Guard Training: An Interview With Jack Carr, published in September 2018, closes with this:

I want to again preface that there are a lot of very experienced instructors out there and we encourage our students to do their research and train with various instructors and schools. We want NRA Carry Guard to be the start of, or a part of, their journey in personal protection and self-reliance. If NRA Carry Guard can help people along that path, then we’ve succeeded.

Sadly, it looks like NRA Carry Guard failed a lot of folks in a variety of ways. At the same time, it shows why doing some due diligence in researching a training company before spending your hard-earned dollars to enroll can prove very worthwhile.

READ: How to Find Quality Self-Defense Firearms Training

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

67 COMMENTS

      • “Frank, have you checked out the USCCA? I have them and love it.”

        Looked at USCCA, and found limited protection for criminal matters. In many states, acquittal, or no charges brought is a bar against civil charges. Not understanding exactly what happens when the “upfront” money is exhausted in a criminal case brought due to use of a gun in self-defense.

        USCCA declares, <i."The Elite membership provides you with $2.25 million of coverage, out of which, $2 million is allocated for civil legal defense and damages, whereas the other $250,000 covers criminal legal defense, attorney retainer, and bail bond funding."

        Cannot find anything on the USCCA website that indicates any further financial support from USCCA for trial on criminal charges. Do you have something that better answers the question? It is truly impossible to know from advertising just what is covered, and when. Even found that some of these companies not only run mini-trials (covering you only if their trial simulation indicates a good chance you will prevail), but some terms of contract include a determination by the company that you were even facing a deadly threat – a term not defined in the contract.

        • I have had the USCCA GOLD Shield for 4 years now…I’m glad I have not tested the policy and found dust…and the founder of USCCA has a sterling reputation and has brought a “grocery bag publication” into a well written and well managed enterprise and with some good and lawful ideas and writers that stay on point. They do not have a “Wine Club” and I think Tim Schmidt the founder would wince at the suggestion that even varies slightly from their “mission statement” of Concealed Carry. MO is a constitutional carry State and I prefer open carry when it won’t cause dizzy spells and fainting from those that see my exposed sidearm. I would also encourage everyone to read and remember “IN THE GRAVEST EXTREME” by Massad Ayoob as a kind of gun owners Bible.

  2. I dropped my NRA membership years ago since Wayne LaPierre probably couldn’t manage a house of ill repute. I joined the GOA.

  3. Blah blah blah whiners. The cup holder on your F250 doesn’t open fully so you go buy a Fiesta.

    • Rather upscale,go for the gusto,go Peterbuilt and you will have all the truck for most needs.

    • If the cup holders in my vehicle had pulled the sort of low down, thieving, corrupt, power hungry colluding with the other side bullshit that Wayne has pulled, I’d want them replaced too.

      Miserable freak’n cup holders …. always getting into mischief, making messes!!!!

      • If my cupholders did what WLP and his minions did, I’d rip the whole dash out and start over. Come to think about it, that would be good advice for the NRA’s BODs also. Rip all the dirty, corrupt weeds out of the garden and start fresh.
        OFC, that won’t happen. The NRA has long ceased to be a gun rights organization. It’s now just a wine club for WLP’s well heeled buddies… like, maybe… Bloomberg?

  4. With Carry Guard, you weren’t covered unless you used a firearm. If you used a knife, you were SOL.

    • You were also SOL unless you had deep enough pockets to raise the price of a first rate legal defense all by yourself. Carry Guard was a reimbursement program. To get anything out of it, you had to win in court first. Little money -> poor defense -> probable conviction -> nothing from Carry Guard. They get to keep your premium. You’re in prison and your family is broke.

      This is good news for anyone still relying on Carry Guard. Now, they can get themselves decent insurance with ACLDN, CCW Safe or USCCA.

    • Steve, with the USCCA I know you have protection for all legal weapons of opportunity! Not just firearms. I would check them out 🙂

  5. http://www.2ndamendmentrally.com/

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    We are at a critical time in our nation’s history, and right now, the country needs the Gun Lobby more than ever.

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    The 2nd Amendment Rally is a grassroots event, organized and funded by grassroots activists, open to all supporters of the Constitution and lovers of liberty.

    Rally for the Second, on the second!

    The 2nd Amendment Rally will take place on Saturday November 2nd, 2019 in Washington, DC. The rally will be starting in front of the Capitol Building at 1PM.

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    • I would go if I could.

      Unfortunately, I’m in the other Washington on the other end of the country and I don’t have the $ or the vacation hours banked up for that kind of travel.

      Plus, the urban progtards and their billionaire “friends” are working overtime to turn this place into Far-Northern California, so if I go anywhere to demonstrate for my rights, it’ll have to be here.

      I wish you luck and at least a million attendees (the MSM is going to lie about attendance anyway, so it might as well be a big, fat, obvious one).

  6. What…wait…the NRA has a wine club!!!
    I doubt that was by popular demand.
    I doubt it turned a profit for the NRA.
    I am sure it is off-mission.
    Every business has a mission statement.
    A business that wastes resources on off-mission projects risks not fulfilling its mission.
    Oh, the NRA….right.

    What was going to be next, NRA cookies sales?
    “Try our new NRA Glockamolli cookies!! Available in these cute magazine shaped boxes. Seventeen to a box, except in CA and NY.”

    • “Try our new NRA Glockamolli cookies!! Available in these cute magazine shaped boxes. Seventeen to a box, except in CA and NY.”

      Luv it, LifeSavor. However, some of us were fortunate enough to get our 17/bx Glockamollis during Freedom Week earlier in the year. Enjoying my Glockamollis and ARadoodles.

    • @LifeSavor:
      It’s all about revenue. They’ve got to figure out some way of paying for Wayne Lapierre’s wardrobe and other fringe benefits, now that all the suckers (including yours truly) have been wised up…

    • NRA doesn’t sell wine, cigars, gold coins, etc. Companies pay the NRA for naming, ad pages in magazines, and mail list access. Just like products become the official credit card, truck, or cereal of the Olympics or AARP. It’s a smart way to make money — too bad they then squandered it in cronyism and venality.

  7. Yeah never fell for that scam. I’ve called it scam from day one. If it’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s how to spot a scam and that the vast majority of “insurance” is an outright scam. There’s some that are needed or required by law of course, but no, I don’t need extra insurance on my phone, tv, watch, or a goddamn pizza. And I damn sure don’t need an insurance policy to walk around armed. While I’m on the topic of scams, I’ll go ahead and list a few other things that’ll never get my money: Charities, the Red Cross, (look up their corrupt history), political action committees/political movements, go fund me’s, and the IRS. I’ll make an exception on rare occasion for certain individual candidates and a couple reputable gun rights orgs. You know your getting old when you start going on long winded rants like that.

    • ????? Pizza insurance???
      LOL!!

      Otherwise, yes. Did not trust the NRA sufficiently to switch to any type of NRA insurance.

    • Some insurance is worth having. Its purpose is to pay unexpected bills that would bankrupt you.

      Whole life insurance is a rip off. On the other hand, term life insurance is worth having for specific purposes. Have a home mortgage that you are paying off slowly? If you die, term insurance will enable your family keep their home. Now that we have no big debts, we have no life insurance.

      I have liability insurance to protect our retirement nest egg. The insurance company will fight the claim or pay off. Either way, our money is safe.

      • Maybe for you. ~85% of Fortune 1000 C-level executives have permanent life insurance. It’s a great way to stash cash. For a thousandaire like me and (probably) you, the benefit isn’t there unless you’re trying to craft a zero-tax retirement strategy.

        Non-renewal is an insurance term. Insurance is not a “service” in that anyone who walks in the door gets served. It’s an agreement between the two parties that either side can terminate. If a carrier goes out of business, well, guess what, everyone gets non-renewed.

        /insurance agent

      • Better check that liability policy. Most have limitations depending on the action against you. And if a jury awarded more than the limit , guess who has to pay the excess amount. Goes for auto insurance home owners all of it. I personally think all insurance should be illegal as it is gambling game and the buyer is on the wrongof the bet. Life insurance or any kind, you’re betting you gonna die later on today. The insurance company says not until the money you paying us has quadrupled. Car insurance, you betting you gonna have an accident. I believe driving is a risk you accept by getting in the car. Kentucky Mutual ‘you yourn, I fix ourn. ‘ have a pleasant for those who know not.

      • I would be sure to read the fine print on any liability policy. A self-defense incident (which USCCA would protect for example), isn’t covered as it is generally viewed as an intentional act. Therefore, no money would be there to help you.

  8. When CarryGuard came out, I did a side-to-side comparison to USCCA. CarryGuard looked pretty good. Then, I considered the sponsors; whom did I trust more? I stuck with USCCA.

  9. As far as I know there has never been a dissenting vote on the NRA Board of Directors for anything.

  10. Had a local gun show this weekend and the guy at the NRA booth was loudly spouting the same sad talking points. When approached by the gentleman I rather loudly said that Wayne had to go before and more money would flow from my pocket. He started to counter with the “still defending your rights” pitch until a group of others started letting him have it about Wayne too. It was magical!!

    • Jeff, you should check out USCCA too! I know they have higher limits for attorney fees and bail. But they also offer protection for court fees, court taxes, and if you’re sued in civil court they have protection for the damages that would be paid out too. Worth looking in to!

  12. “Non-renewed? An interesting choice of words.:”

    Not really, no. Cancellation and non-renewal are different. Insurance policies typically run for one year. Cancellation means that the policy is terminated before the year ends. Non-renewal means that when the year is up you cannot renew it.

    Nor can I really fault NRA leadership for this occurrence. The NRA was not the carrier, just the plan sponsor. If the carrier says that it is quitting the line of business, there isn’t a whole lot anyone can do about it. I would suspect instead that Chubb was pressured by NY regulators (and the current shit storm of litigation) to drop out of the line of business, a line in which there are very few participants.

    • The NRA sponsored a program that was badly flawed from the start. They failed to put themselves in the shoes of a middle class person who could afford a few hundred dollars a year for insurance but couldn’t afford the price of a first class legal defense.

    • That’s quite some rewriting of history there.

      The Lockton and then later Chubb had no license to sell this insurance in any state. Apart from that, the insurance policy had a major flaw, as it would have paid out to people that were convicted. Both of these are illegal according to state insurance laws. Several states decided to sue and fine the insurance companies, who passed the fine on to the sponsor and exited.

      Ackerman McQueen actually ran NRA Carry Guard Insurance and Training, neither made any money. They made significant losses in lawyer fees, fines and marketing. The NRA was the main sponsor and promoter, and was on the hook for all losses. That’s part of the reason why the Ackerman McQueen + NRA relationship blew up.

      • Not exactly. Lockton was a broker, not an insurer. Lockton placed the insurance with a nonadmitted carrier, aka a “surplus lines carrier.” Lockton did have a surplus lines broker license, but did not comply with the surplus lines law, which, generally speaking, requires the broker attempting to obtain quotes from two admitted carriers before placing with a surplus lines carrier. Lockton failed to do so, which was just plain sloppy.

        This is not to say that there is necessarily anything wrong with placing coverage with a non-admitted carrier; some are good, some are really bad. Lloyd’s of London operates as a surplus lines carrier in the US. There was nothing wrong with Chubb, either, it just decided it didn’t want to service this line of business.

      • Paying out on a conviction is an IMPORTANT condition to look for in a policy! For one, if the insurance won’t pay for a defense their own attorney loses, are you REALLY covered for anything in the first place? There’s ABSOLUTELY no incentive to win any case! Secondly, ANY conviction is a conviction, whether it’s directly related to the defensive shooting or not. A lot of urban jurisdictions are very anti-gun and anti-gun owners and if you defend yourself it is VERY LIKELY there will be unrelated charges added for punitive reasons. The prosecutor knows you defended yourself, knows you are insured, and knows if they can convict you for jaywalking because you ran out into the street to avoid getting shot, or convict you for discharging a firearm within city limits, that ANY conviction is a conviction…insurance won’t pay…and YOU are suddenly on the hook for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

        When you are dealing with an insurance company, who doesn’t want to pay out and a jurisdiction that doesn’t want you to have a gun, you need to be VERY careful of the coverage you are actually buying!

        • And the idea that it is illegal for insurance to pay out on a conviction is ludicrous! In fact, the very opposite of your claim is true. Every single state REQUIRES insurance for that EXACT scenario. If you drive, you must have liability as a minimum! You DO understand that’s what liability insurance is, don’t you?

          • You don’t seem to understand what liability insurance is!

            Liability insurance will not pay a dime for a crime you purposely committed! EVERY liability insurance has disclaimers that exclude intentional and fraudulent acts. Liability insurance is for accidents only and only if those accidents are not due to criminal negligence.

            If you purposely drive your car into your ex’s house out of anger, your automotive liability insurance will pay exactly ZERO. You will not only be charged with a crime, but after criminal proceedings sued for the damages in civil court.

            There are a number of corner cases where liability insurance MAY cover you, but it is never guaranteed: https://www.insure.com/car-insurance/insurance-company-pays-for-illegal-acts.html

            In case of a defensive shooting that goes to trial and the trial is lost, the conviction would be murder or manslaughter. Please name a single insurance company covering murder or manslaughter! LOL. Insurance companies are actually prohibited by state law to do that.

  13. Wayne LaPierre’s house of cards is beginning to feel the winds of change. When an organization becomes completely unresponsive to the membership, it’s only a matter of time until the whole thing implodes. And, as more and more transgressions are revealed, the NRA will start hemorrhaging money and members. PLUS, if the financials are out of order, the scrutiny brought on by government investigations will see a stake through the hearts of the Lords of Fairfax. Jim and Tammy Bakker anyone?

  14. The greatest training on planet Earth? Yeah right. The only people that made any money on this were Josh Powell and Dana Loesch.

    • If you’re still looking for really good training, check out the USCCA! They have a ton for free on their website, when you sign up for a free account, and on their YouTube channel. You may find something helpful 🙂

  16. I have been using the USCCA’s insurance program for several years, but I wonder how long before they come under fire the way the NRA Carry Guard did. I have read that there are some states (New York, for one) that tossed out an attack for defensive firearm usage insurance and there are other locations that are trying to require gun owners to have special insurance for just owning a firearm.

    I realize it looks as if the NRA was mismanaged, at least that is what the Lame Stream News Media is pushing and repeating. I also know the NRA wine program seems to be strong, while other programs don’t seem to the promoted as well. But they are still the strongest voice for the Second Amendment. There are several other groups that make a respectable effort and would advocate joining one of those as well.

    We are in a turbulent time and each of us, if we want to preserve our Natural Rights (aka. God-given Rights) needs to write our representatives often reminding them we need to preserve American values, our natural rights and remind them the most recent studies show violent crime is already dropping.

    • I have been using USCCA for quite some time too and I know that if you give them a call, I’m sure they’d be glad to help answer your questions 🙂 Here’s the number I have off of my card: 877-677-1919

    • Have you checked out the USCCA though? I know they have protections for all those other various things like court fees and court taxes. I would call CCW safe and find out if they will do the same for that and ask about how their emergency contact works. I know at USCCA, I can call them 24/7 and someone will be there. 🙂

        • That’s great! It doesn’t hurt to call and get the information from them and be sure to read any membership agreement for all the fine print 🙂 That goes without saying of any company that you choose. It’s important to know all the in’s and out’s and get the best protection available.

  18. Anyone who knows anything about the NRA knows that they have compromised the entirety of the organization’s history. The sooner the NRA dies, the more REAL SECOND AMENDMENT groups can actually do God’s work instead of working deals with the Devil. I left the NRA decades ago for exactly that reason. Someone should document on a website all the times the NRA has sold out our Second Amendment.

    • Perhaps these.

      When the NRA Supported Gun Control

      http://time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history/

      NRA President’s Testimony During Congressional Debate
      of the National Firearms Act of 1934

      MR.CARL T. FREDERICK: … “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. … I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses”

      NRA Proudly Negotiating Rights Away since 1934

      http://www.keepandbeararms.com/NRA/NFA.htm

      The NRA is losing credibility with gun owners because of its willingness to “compromise”–giving anti-gunners “half-a-loaf” every time a new gun control proposal comes out. The anti-gunners want “the whole enchilada” but will settle for half, knowing that they might get “the whole loaf” eventually.
      Let’s look at the NRA’s “record” of protecting Second Amendment rights:
      –National Firearms Act of 1934–not a peep of protestation from the NRA
      –1968 Gun Control Act–no protestation here, either
      –1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act–allowed the banning the registration and civilian ownership of of newly-manufactured machine guns, with the resultant skyrocketing of prices of existing machine guns. No opposition offered
      –1994 “Assault Weapons Ban”–feebly protested by the NRA with little opposition. Even Bill Ruger got in on the act with his successful proposal to limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds. Yes, Bill Ruger actually did make that suggestion which was adopted
      –2018 “Bump stock ban”–the NRA first suggesting a ban on “rate increasing devices”, even a shoestring can be used as a “rate increaser”, backing off only after an outcry from NRA members
      It seems that the NRA half-heartedly protests the infringements on the Second Amendment in order to bolster new “memberships”.
      What better way to get members than to allow infringements and then claim that you are fighting for our “rights”.
      The NRA’s motto should be “NO COMPROMISE” and should fight EVERY gun control proposal…
      Sadly, the NRA IS NOT doing its job. NRA Proudly Negotiating Rights Away since 1934 .

  19. Wayne is the visible scab. The Board members who unflinchingly support him are the disease. If you pick at a scab, the infection increases. Both Wayne and the Board must go.

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