Kansas law thrusts Iowa insurer into gun debate

Victor Epstein | The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A new Kansas law allowing gun owners to carry weapons in public buildings, including schools, has thrust a major Des Moines-based insurer into the national gun control debate.

The EMC Insurance Cos. insures 85 percent to 90 percent of all Kansas school districts and has refused to renew coverage for schools that permit teachers and custodians to carry concealed firearms on their campuses under the new law, which took effect July 1. It's not a political decision, but a financial one based on the riskier climate it estimates would be created, the insurer said.

"We've been writing school business for almost 40 years, and 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," said Mick Lovell, EMC's vice president for business development. "Our guidelines have not recently changed."

The Kansas Legislature passed the law after the fatal shootings of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Conn., in December.

The law is similar to one in Utah. Around the country, firearms groups have called on schools to let teachers and staff carry weapons to protect children and prevent mass shootings.

A smaller Des Moines-area insurer — Continental Western Group, based in Urbandale — has followed EMC's lead with a similar position in response to the new law, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards' insurance program.

So has Wright Specialty Insurance, based in New York.

As of Saturday, no Kansas school districts had adopted a policy of allowing people with concealed carry permits on their campuses as permitted under the new law, said David Shriver, director of the Kansas school board association's insurance program.

Bob Skow, chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa, said he's not surprised by the companies' decisions. Insurance is all about risk and about pricing the cost of coverage in a way that correctly reflects it. That's one of the reasons many schools have gotten rid of their trampolines, he said.

"It's one thing to have a trained peace officer with a gun in school; it's a completely different situation when you have a custodian or a teacher with a gun," Skow said. "That changes the risk of insuring a school and magnifies it considerably."

Insurers simply don't know how to price the added risk yet, he said, but they know it's there.

While a trampoline can hurt one person, modern weapons have the potential to kill many people very quickly, he said, in a reference to Newtown. Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School there Dec. 14 before taking his own life.

Other shootings at schools include the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, which caused 15 deaths and 21 injuries, and a 2007 shooting spree at Virginia Tech, which produced 33 deaths and 23 injuries. Mass shootings have claimed 934 lives in 146 shootings over the past seven years, according to a study by USA TODAY.

After the Newtown shootings, the National Rifle Association and its political allies called for an armed officer in every school. As stated on the NRA's website, the organization blames "Gun-Free School Zones" for turning American schools into the "safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk."

NRA opponents have called for stricter gun control to reduce the availability of firearms. Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said he wasn't surprised that EMC and other insurers were balking at covering the risk of the new Kansas law.

"This is a logical response from insurers to a risk nightmare," Everitt said. "Putting a teacher or an administrator with little firearms training in a school with a loaded weapon is clearly a threat to everyone, including the kids."

Forrest Knox, the Kansas state senator who is the chief advocate of the new gun law, maintains that having legal guns in schools and other government buildings could prevent injuries. He's been pushing the legislation for years.

Knox said that local governments are free to opt out of the law allowing weapons in public buildings, but only 300 of the 3,000 counties and municipalities in Kansas have sent letters to the state attorney general seeking exemptions.

He said three community colleges in and around his district in Altoona, Kan., have found an insurer who will work with them. Shriver, the Kansas school board group insurance director, identified the company as IMA, or Insurance Management Association, which he described as a brokerage that would market the coverage to different companies.

He identified the schools as Independence Community College, Labette Community College and Neosho County Community College.

"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 — it's news to me," Knox said. "Law enforcement responds better (to school shootings now), but it still takes a few minutes, and a lot of damage can be done in a few minutes."