Because killing someone shouldn't be a financial burden on your family.
Are you the sort of person that expects you might someday shoot someone with that gun you're carrying? Former Virginia attorney general and failed gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli would like to sell you
some cheap legal insurance for that:
Cuccinelli and three partners have launched Virginia Self Defense Law, a firm focused on defending Second Amendment rights. With bargain-basement pricing and a cheeky slogan — “Defending those who defend themselves” — the venture seeks to tap into a feeling among some gun owners that the right to bear arms is under attack.
“A legal retainer with Virginia Self Defense Law costs as little as $8.33 a month — less than half the cost of a hunting license,” the firm’s Web site says. “Don’t be a victim! Don’t let these realities become your family’s fiscal nightmare!”
Half the cost of a hunting license, and you get legal representation if you kill someone? Sounds like a bargain!
“All of us . . . can name cases we know of in various places where really outrageous things went on just to torment lawful, law-abiding gun owners,” Cuccinelli said in an interview. “We’re filling a market need.”
Yes, if there's one thing we've learned over the past few years it's that people wandering around public spaces with guns are the real victims here.
This seems the sort of thing that might backfire. First, seeking out insurance against shooting people seems a telltale sign that you believe you are the sort of person who may someday get into legal trouble for shooting people; that seems like that's the sort of thing that might work against you at trial. And for the same reasons, in advertising specifically as the law office for people who like pushing the boundaries of legality with their weapons, Cuccinelli would seem to be self-selecting for exactly the sort of gun owners who are most likely to get into trouble. For, say, shooting a car full of unarmed teenagers over their choice of music, or shooting the injured person coming to their door after a car wreck, or following someone around the neighborhood with your gun because you figure they're the wrong color to be living there.
No, this may not turn out to be the profit center Cuccinelli and partners are expecting it to be.