Saving Lives

In June, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office for the first time ever declared firearm violence in the United States a public health crisis.

More than 48,000 people died in gun-related incidents in 2022, 16,000 deaths above 2010, according to the Surgeon General’s advisory on firearm violence. Guns have been the leading cause of death for children and adolescents ages 1 to 19 since 2020. “Firearm violence is pervasive, with more than half (54%) of U.S. adults or their family members having experienced a firearm-related incident in their lives.”

The prevalence of the problem was highlighted on July 13, 2024, by the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in an assault-rifle attack that killed one and injured three people. And on Sept. 4, a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, resulted in the deaths of two students and two teachers.

Gun violence is a complicated risk with different drivers. The dogged opposition of many regions of the country to gun control measures has blunted the option that many experts think would be the most direct and effective means of reducing the crisis.

Insurance companies offer active assailant policies and other coverage that promote prevention and mitigation of shootings, which has proven effective in targeting and responding to potential threats. But work remains to increase uptake of preventive measures, which include employee incident response training, anonymous tip channels, physical surveillance and target hardening, counseling programs, and other services provided by security consultants.

Brokers and agents, in particular, can play an important role by raising the issue and steering clients toward implementing such measures to reduce the risk of gun violence, according to sources interviewed for this article. Plus, as some states begin to demand employers take more responsibility for workplace violence, focusing on this issue may become mandatory.

The Numbers

In a report issued in June, the FBI identified 229 active shooter incidents from 2019 to 2023, defined as an event in which one or more individuals kill or attempt to kill people in a populated area by using a firearm. That was 89% higher than in the preceding five-year period from 2014 to 2018 and encompassed incidents in 44 states and the District of Columbia at “location categories including commerce, open space, education, government, residence, health care, and house of worship.” In those incidents, 225 shooters killed 449 people and wounded 773.

Of the 229 events from 2019 to 2023, 25%, or 58, were designated as “mass killings” in which three or more people were killed in a single incident.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, an online compilation of incidents collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government, and commercial sources, mass shootings— defined there as an event in which a minimum of four victims were shot, either injured or killed—increased from 272 in 2014 to 656 in 2023. The number of youth aged 12 to 17 killed in gun violence rose from 569 to 1,385 over the same period.

There is no single cause for the increases, but rather multiple factors, says Lucy Straker, focus group leader for U.S. political violence & deadly weapons protection at specialty insurer Beazley.

“People today are facing physical, psychological, and social stressors, including financial stress, interpersonal conflicts, mental health, substance abuse, and more. In addition, normal life stressors have been compounded by political polarization, extremism, hate crime, and racial and social injustice,” Straker says. “It’s easy to solely blame the ease of access and availability of firearms in the U.S. today for the high number of shootings. However, people must elect to go down a path to violence, and their decision to do so is driven in part by their environment.”

Deep Divides Frustrate Solutions

Part of what makes gun violence prevention challenging is how deep the causes are and how they relate to underlying experiences and values of subcultures throughout the United States.

Still, there is strong evidence that gun control measures such as assault-rifle bans work when implemented. The bad news is that they are politically untenable at the national level given deep-seated value differences that divide the country. The lynchpin to this dispute is the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Many states that have passed gun control laws have better gun violence records than those without them.

The New York City region “is far and away the safest part of the U.S. mainland when it comes to gun violence, while the regions Florida and Texas belong to have per capita firearm death rates (homicides and suicides) three to four times higher than New York’s,” Colin Woodard, director of the Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, wrote in an April 2023 analysis published in Politico.

Woodard attributes much of the difference in gun violence in different regions to distinct attitudes toward personal autonomy and governmental regulation, firearm use, violence, freedom, and honor dating to their initial settlers. Gun violence, for example, is highest in the South; that, in part, reflects the legacy of the economic system of slavery, which justified the use of violence for economic ends, Woodard says. It is lowest in the Northeast, reflecting more egalitarian norms combined with greater willingness to submit to regulation by central authorities, according to his analysis.

In many areas, the country is moving in different directions on gun control. Democratic-led states are tightening gun control laws while Republican-led states are loosening them, such as increasingly passing right-to-carry and stand-your-ground laws, says Robert Hartwig, director of the Risk and Uncertainty Management Center at the University of South Carolina and former president of the Insurance Information Institute.

The insurance industry has taken a significant, sustained role in leading on some social issues, through organizations such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, Hartwig says. But that hasn’t happened when it comes to gun violence—and likely won’t, he adds.

“Insurers understand that this is a third rail issue—a large proportion of their policyholders, probably close to half, are firearms owners themselves. I think insurers feel that their current presence in the market, where their role is to indemnify individuals who may have been harmed because of the negligence of others in some cases, is an appropriate one,” according to Hartwig. “The difference is there is a Second Amendment right to bear arms. They’re not throwing up their hands on this issue. They are—I think justifiably—focusing their efforts on where they have a particular established history of expertise, and that’s in the mitigation of risk.”

General commercial liability policy exclusions for gun violence are increasing, Beazley’s Straker says. While many of these carriers are reluctant to completely exclude coverage of this type, a potential competitive disadvantage, they instead establish sub-limits, she says. “Often clients are then looking to the active assailant (AA) marketplace to fill that gap. It’s worth noting, though, that the AA market is not a full A&B write-back as a weapon has to be utilized for the policy to be triggered.”

Prevention

Some leading active assailant and mass shooter insurance products have strong prevention components.

They also offer more traditional indemnification components that, according to Marsh, can include coverage for: property damage, business interruption, and extra expenses; legal liability; non-physical damage; loss of attraction and denial of access; reimbursement for costs for public relations consulting, crisis management, medical services, counseling and/or psychiatric care, hiring of additional staff, and added security; and limits of up to $100 million.

To be effective, active assailant, mass shooter, and similar policies must offer prevention services, says Harry Rhulen, co-founder and CEO of CrisisRisk Strategies, which provides broker training, crisis response, and other services that support Beazley’s active shooter prevention efforts.

It is particularly important to be able to react to detected imminent threats, Rhulen says. “Imminent is that phase when you’ve recognized the behavior of concern or you’ve seen something that gives you pause to say, ‘Gosh, this could really go badly,’” he adds, noting a CrisisRisk hotline that insureds can use to seek assistance during a possible security threat. “We help them assess the threat level, develop strategies, and take steps to avoid a claim from ever occurring.”

International specialty insurer Aspen Insurance has partnered with another risk management firm, Crisis24, to provide free prevention training to policyholders, says Tim Strong, Aspen’s head of crisis management. The type and level of services provided vary by policy.

“For instance, for slightly smaller limits with smaller policyholders, the Crisis24 service can include online modules to provide training and awareness,” Strong says. “And then, depending on the size of the budget, it can be services that include Crisis24 visiting a client’s premises and training their staff as to what to do in the event of a shooter coming on-site.”

Additional services range from tabletop exercises on responding to an active shooter to teaching security staff best practices on firing an employee safely and ensuring they cannot return to the worksite.

Beyond crisis preparedness, there is also a free level of crisis response and then a cost beyond that for additional services such as executive protection and security consulting, Strong says.

On May 1, 2024, insurer AXA XL unveiled a newly revised active assailant product that makes risk mitigation a key component of the underlying policy for the first time.
When an insured receives a direct threat of an active assailant event, AXA XL security consultant S-RM collaborates with local law enforcement to mitigate risks, provide relevant security advice, and monitor social media threats and the dark web when necessary or requested, says Morgan Shrubb, AXA XL’s head of war, terrorism, and political violence, Americas.

“This threat extension is part of our active assailant policy in addition to extra security costs needed to stop a direct threat,” Shrubb says. “Part of our active assailant product includes additional enhancements for an extra charge, including hiring S-RM to conduct thorough reviews of client crisis management and response plans, offering guidance on improvements, conducting training exercises, and devising action plans tailored to various scenarios involving an active shooter.”

Insurer The Hanover provides policyholders with services encompassing active shooter and emergency response training from experienced vendors, says Christina Villena, vice president of risk solutions. That covers “real-life scenarios with training courses, threat detection, and post-crisis counseling and business recovery. Our training offers a comprehensive look at both preventative measures as well as post-event response.”

Some insurers provide active assailant technical solutions even without active assailant policies. In 2021, Merrill, Wisconsin-based Church Mutual Insurance began offering a free armed intruder alert device for eligible insureds, notes Eric Spacek, Church Mutual’s assistant vice president for risk control. When pulled from a strategic location the system works like a silent alarm to alert law enforcement of an armed intrusion within seconds to help decrease the response time.

“It’s to get that response started quicker, but it’s really just a part of our overall program focused on preventing these incidents and having the organizations that we insure prepared for them ahead of time,” Spacek says.

Offered to more than 50,000 accounts nationwide, about 1,500 have taken up the security devices, Spacek says. Outreach continues: “When we are in contact with individual eligible customers we remind them of our Pull for Police technology,” Spacek says. No insureds have pulled the device in an emergency yet, he adds.

The Role for Brokers

As custodians of the client relationship, brokers and agents can tactfully raise the gun violence issue with their clients, break it down, and point the way to workable solutions, several individuals interviewed noted. They can also analyze the likely coverage for such incidents provided by a general commercial liability policy and compare prevention services, as well as indemnification, offered by active assailant policies.

Some larger brokerages, like Marsh, also have professionals who complement security services with professional advisory and consulting offerings, says Tarique Nageer, terrorism placement advisory leader for Marsh’s property practice. Nageer says approximately seven product lead insurers provide active assailant insurance, with approximately 10-15 willing to offer supporting capacity.

Security consultant Jonathan Frost provides physical security consulting services, including vulnerability assessments, to Marsh clients.

“When it comes to mitigating workplace violence, it comes down to a really comprehensive and layered approach from everything that incorporates physical security controls to training and preparedness and all the way down to policies and procedures to make the overall program most effective,” Frost says.

Brokers and agents at smaller agencies without dedicated security consultants need connections in the security ecosystem for client referrals, Frost says.

“Physical security and workplace violence has really become a specialty where we have organizations like ASIS International that do board certifications to be able to be a professional in the field,” he notes. “Being able to have resources to tap into for your clients is going to be really important, especially moving forward.”

Generally, brokers and agents should advise clients to take the preventive services offered within an active assailant policy, says Nageer.

Beazley’s suite of prevention services, offered to all deadly weapons protection insureds at no cost beyond their premium, includes a survey to benchmark an insured’s current violence protection program against best practices; regular webinars on deadly weapons protection topics; and access to a portal that houses resources and training for member employees on critical incident response and behavioral risk-awareness, Straker says.

Services of this type “absolutely” work, Rhulen says. He notes that CrisisRisk has logged more than 100 hotline calls through Beazley and helped coordinate responses to potentially imminent threats.

Regulatory Mandates

State regulators are also starting to focus on preventing workplace violence, which means even more reason for brokers to make this a central issue for their clients.

In 2023, California adopted Senate Bill 553 and became the first state in the nation to require that all employers above a minimum number of employees have plans in place that are “effective” in preventing workplace violence by July 1, 2024.

“From an insurance company standpoint, this is something new—now insurers will look to make sure these plans are in place when they do their audits and their inspections, whether that’s for me quoting the insurance business, or for whatever their underwriting requirements are every two, three years,” says Virginia Pajarito, senior vice president and director of risk control at brokerage Lockton.

The law will have implications far beyond California, according to CrisisRisk’s Rhulen.

“I think employers across the country are not going to have a choice but to implement these types of programs outside of California,” he says. “So if I’m an employer and I’ve got a California location, but I’ve also got 10 locations around the country, I can’t implement something different in California than I do in my other locations. Can you imagine if we had a violent event in our Chicago office and the plaintiff’s attorney puts us on the stand and says, ‘You have this in place in your California office. Why didn’t you do this in Chicago?’”

Rhulen notes many more states have adopted or are considering statutes or provisions similar to SB 553. According to a November 2023 LexisNexis analysis, more than 100 bills mentioning “workplace violence” had been introduced in 27 states that year, with a quarter of those measures enacted or adopted at that point. States with enacted bills dealing with workplace violence in 2023 included California, Utah, Montana, Texas, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, according to the LexisNexis analysis.

Further, there are federal liability principles at play, Rhulen adds: “It’s a federal law…that every employer in the United States has a duty to provide a safe workplace. California has taken it a step further by defining that duty as it relates to workplace violence.”

Pajarito says Lockton is helping its clients comply with SB 553, which applies to every employer with 10 or more employees or any employer that has a public-facing employee. “SB 553 requires plans and requires training annually and upon initial hire,” Pajarito says. “When SB 553 was released late last year, we put together a white paper letting clients know about this new requirement, what it requires, and what they need to do.”

So far, Pajarito says she has observed variable compliance levels with the law.

“There are some organizations that have been proactive and already have measures in place, but there are still many others who have not done much on the prevention side since this has never been required of them,” she says. “But now that the [Division of Occupational Safety and Health of California] can potentially come out and cite an employer for not having a program in place, we are getting a lot of interest from clients to help them assess the risk and to put together the written training programs. Increasing awareness can be very, very effective across the board, and for some, these compliance efforts will make a big difference.”

Beazley has also rolled out materials for clients, Straker says. The tools and resources include an instructional guide, an SB 553 inventory checklist, a workplace violence prevention plan template, and access to CrisisRisk experts.

The plan is broken down into various sections such as identifying potential hazards, employee training, responding to violence, and communications and emergency response.

“We must all become responsible for our neighbor’s safety,” Straker says. “We recognize that violence is a risk that every business must cover and plan for. Businesses have a duty of care, and staff and customer well-being are not just a legal obligation but a moral imperative.