PR204Mar07

Insurance - A View From the NRA

by Glynn Alger, Secretary General, NRA

I am constantly amazed when I hear that people do not understand about the need to have adequate insurance.

To avoid any confusion, all shooters require public liability cover at a basic level. This is necessary so the individual or organisation has cover should the unspeakable happen and an accident occur involving serious injury or worse, which should lead to civil liability case. The usual level of cover is currently £5m, soon to rise to £10m. This is a requirement when shooting on any safety-certificated range, whether MoD or civilian in future.

Individuals can get this cover, plus accidental damage to equipment, personal accident etc by applying to be a member of one of the national bodies or by purchasing commercially.

On the other hand, club insurance is a different animal. The cover is usually specific to the club activities. An individual is covered while they are taking part in their club shoots. However, they are generally without cover when not so engaged, contrary to wide-held belief. Basically, if you are not shooting with your club under the club insurance when an incident occurs it is very unlikely you are covered.

The moral of this story is that everyone who shoots should be aware of the cover and conditions of their insurance whether that is for an individual under a member's policy or the club policy.

Another important matter is that individual and club policies generally start and finish on a specified date each year. If the start date for a policy is the 1 April 2007, for instance, and a club gets insured in June, the insurance is not back-dated to April. In effect, if a club secretary delays taking out insurance till after the start of the shooting season the club will be uncovered for a period.

Hopefully, a number of ambiguities around insurance will be dealt with under a single insurance as the CPSA, NSRA and NRA work towards becoming a single national body.

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