ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS A SHOTGUN, TWO SHELLS, AND INSURANCE, HUH?

February 1^st, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS A SHOTGUN,

TWO SHELLS, AND INSURANCE, HUH?

 

 You think insurance policyholders in Louisiana face huge insurance requirements?  How about living in San Jose, California, where the city council just voted to adopt a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance.  Gun owners in droves turned out to protest this proposal, saying such an ordinance would violate the second amendment.  But to no avail.

 

The ongoing gun debate had two new elements added to the mix this past week.  President Joe Biden suggested that a shotgun was all any individual needed for self-protection. And several other states are proposing legislation that would require gun owner’s insurance for anyone possessing a firearm.  Do either of these proposals make sense?

Here is what the President suggested in a Town Hall meeting sponsored by Parents Magazine: “If there are bad guys on the property, walk out on the balcony and fire a couple blasts from their double-barrel shotgun. You don’t need 30 rounds to protect yourself,” he adds, “and a shotgun’s easier to aim than an assault-style rifle. Plus, two shotgun blasts should scare off most intruders,” Biden says.

Is he right?  Maybe, maybe not.  Let me share a personal experience.  Back in the 1970s, I lived out in the country on a long gravel road in a rural part of Northeast Louisiana.  The closest law-enforcement station was 30 miles away, and there were no neighbors close by.

I was home alone, one evening, and it was little after midnight when I thought I saw a faint flickering of light the through the trees.  I got out of bed, and went out on the porch (as the Vice President suggested) for better view, and a yes, I could see several lights on my property, about 100 yards away.  I stood there, watching for a few minutes. Then the lights disappeared.  I called the local sheriff’s office, knowing that it would be a good while before the deputy could be on the scene. Were they approaching the house? I had no idea.  But not wanting to be on the defensive in my own home, I decided to go outside.

Armed with a rifle and a 10-round clip, a semi-automatic 9mm pistol, and a spotlight, I slipped out the back door, made a wide circle from the back of my house, and made a rear approach to the area I thought the lights had come from.  Two trucks were parked side by side, and I could hear low voices.

I anchored the spotlight on a tree limb, and reeled out the cord to a spot some twenty yards away.  I didn’t want to be near the light if shots were fired.  After a few deep breaths, I flipped on the light, fired four shots into the air, and yelled a stream of obscenities.  The two trucks immediately backed up and hightailed off my property.

An hour later, local Sheriff Buddy Schiele made it to the house and told me that his deputies had stopped the two trucks with four hunters who were illegally hunting deer at night.  They had parked on my property, apparently with plans to walk over an adjoining levee in hopes of finding a deer.  No harm done, but until that moment, I had no way of knowing whether these were bungling trespassers, or bad guys with malicious intentions.

The point of my story?  A shotgun with two shells would certainly not ward of four potential thugs who might have been after more than a deer. I would have been put at great personal risk with just the shotgun.  No Mr. Vice President, you need more in a rural setting when you have only yourself to put up any defense.

How about the proposal to force every gun owner to buy liability insurance?  After all, if you drive a car, you are required by every state in the U.S. to have liability insurance.  So, if drivers must have auto insurance, why shouldn’t gun owners have to have gun owner’s insurance?

First of all, courts nationwide have determined that driving is a privilege. And not a (second amendment) right as defended by gun owners.  A driver is generally on a public highway, built with taxpayer funds, and the “rules of the road” require liability insurance.  It should be pointed out that a driver is not required to have either a driver’s license or insurance if the vehicle is driven on private property.  I taught my kids and assorted nieces and nephews to drive at our family camp in rural Louisiana, where they could practice on dirt roads.  No license or insurance necessary.

 

Based on my experience as a former Louisiana insurance commissioner, I can also tell readers that the cost of such proposed gun liability insurance would not come cheap.  New York is presently considering in their legislature a proposal to require every gun owner to have a minimum of $1 million in liability coverage.  I have not sat down with insurance actuaries to figure out specifically what the premium would be, but I would estimate that a gun-owner is looking at a minimum of $2000 a year to pay for such insurance.  The insurance premium could be significantly more for someone living in the inner city.  Such a cost would price the ownership of a gun outside the reach of the average citizen.

Unless the activity to be insured is considered a privilege, then there is no requirement or a “right” to insure any object or undertaking.  I did not have to insure my house, but it just makes good financial sense to do so.  There is no requirement that an individual have life insurance. One makes such a choice to protect their loved ones when they die.  Many people have general liability insurance coverage on any activity that might subject them to a lawsuit.  That would include protection against a lawsuit involving a gun accident. But purchasing such insurance is not mandatory.  It’s a choice.

In the months to come, numerous ideas will be floated in an effort to regulate gun ownership. Certainly, there are some people who should not be in the possession of a gun.  But allowing only two shotgun shells, and requiring mandatory gun insurance are not reasonable, much less practical, limitations that should be placed on law-abiding citizens.  The issue is not about hunting. In the face of violent criminal threat, your weapon and your wits may be all you have to protect yourself.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  

 

 

Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

January 17th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana Has Worst Drivers in the U.S.!

Say it isn’t so. The Bayou State, made up of docile souls who are law abiding, courteous and well-trained motorists, has just been tagged by several rating services as having the worst drivers in the nation. Look, the folks down here in the deepest of the deep Southern states do get a little rowdy now and then. Maybe Mardi Gras and Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. But day in and day out, we are a bunch of lousy drivers? It just can’t be!

Ah, mon cher, but the facts don’t lie. Pick your category of worst driving habits and you will see Louisiana motorists at the bottom of the ranking barrel. Some ratings agencies have even suggested that out of state drivers make a U-turn when they approach the Louisiana state line. Here are a few of the reasons why.

CarInsuranceComparison.com rates Louisiana as the number one state for failure to obey, Number 5 in careless driving, 6^thin drunk driving, 4^th in average number of fatalities, and an overall rating of number 1 for worst drivers. Bankrate.com reaches the same conclusion that the worst drivers in the country are in Louisiana.

Road rage is front and center in a number of metropolitan  areas where irate drivers have gunned down a number of drivers where confrontations have taken place. Any number of hit and runs are a regular occurrence all over the state.

Let me give you my personal observations. I regularly travel each week from my home in Baton Rouge down to New Orleans on I-10, and once or twice a week to the Covington area on I-12. The posted speed limit is 70 miles an hour, and I generally go the speed limit and maybe even fudge a mile or two. On both interstates, you would think I was competing in the Daytona 500. Not just a few, but hundreds of cars whiz by me zipping along at 80, 85 or 90 miles an hour without giving a second thought to how much over the speed limit they are traveling.

This past Monday, it rained in torrents all over the state. The law is clear that when your windshield gets wet, drivers are required to turn on their headlights. On a trip to New Orleans on I-10, it seemed that every 6^th or 7^th car, in a major downpour, ignored the law and traveled without the car’s lights turned on.

DWIs? The penalties are strict, but too often are not imposed. A driver in Livingston Parish  appeared in court recently following multiple DWIs and a host of other drug related citations and arrests. He walked away with a suspended jail sentence and a small fine.

For a third offense DWI, the Louisiana law is quite clear. Jail time, loss of driving privileges for 5 years, and the driver’s car is impounded and sold. Too tough for such a violation? Heck no! Get these irresponsible drunks off the roads. I know this law well because I wrote it and presented it to the legislature back in 1994 when I served as Insurance Commissioner. Yet the tough law is almost never enforced.

The state police, who should have an acceptable level of troopers out on the interstates, are dramatically understaffed and are several hundred troopers short just for highway duty. Under the Jindal administration, not one new trooper was hired and trained for the last five years. The Louisiana legislature, in its wisdom, can find over one billion dollars for corporate giveaways, and millions for football and basketball teams, but no money to hire more of those who protect us.

Bad driving habits are based on personal responsibility and the right attitude. Laissez les bon temps roulez just doesn’t cut it when it comes to safety on the highways. There’s a brashness and arrogance by many drivers than endangers the rest of us. More enforcement is necessary, but it’s going to take the Governor and the legislature to step up and fund a major crack down. There is a lot at stake.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

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AUTO INSURANCE RATES SKYROCKETING!

January 24th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

AUTO INSURANCE RATES SKYROCKETING!

Now let’s see.  It’s been almost two years since the Louisiana legislature passed legislation taking away certain legal rights of Louisiana insurance policyholders.  But it will be worth it said many legislators and the insurance commissioner.  We were assured that there was to be a dramatic drop in the cost of automobile insurance.  By 25% said the insurance commissioner. I’ve been waiting and waiting to spend these great savings all of us were promised.

So just how much in savings have we received so far?  Zilch, zero, naught, nil, nix, absolutely nothing.  In fact the supposed cost reductions for Louisiana policy holders has gotten much worse.  Far from any savings or even maintaining the status quo, insurance rates have skyrocketed.  Bottom line?  We all got conned by the insurance industry, the insurance commissioner, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), and numerous legislators, both republican and democrat.  That’s right policyholders.  You got snookered, thwarted, stymied, stumped and outright lied to.

The results are in and here is what policyholders are facing. The Zebra, the nation’s leading insurance comparison site, released its 2022 State of Auto Insurance Report revealing the national average annual cost for car insurance.  Their report concludes: “Louisiana saw the largest increase of 42%, which now puts the state at the top spot for most expensive insurance.“  Forty two percent?  You’ve got to be kidding.

 Then look at what Zebra concludes are the top three most expensive cities in all the U.S. for car insurance. New Orleans comes in at number one with an average auto rate of $3,532.  Next (in all of America) is Baton Rouge with an average rate of $3,473.  And third is Alexandria at $3,202.

The study shows that the national average annual cost for auto insurance is $1,529, so the Bayou State is almost double this amount.  In fact, Louisiana is some $626 more than Michigan, the next highest state in the nation.

Aah, but this must be an aberration say these so-called tort reformers who want to take away policyholder rights.  O.K, so let’s take a look at the conclusions of another new report just released this week. It says: “A study by Dolman Law ranks the 50 states from best to worst in which to drive. The biggest loser? Louisiana.  Insurance costs are high in Louisiana, which leads to a large number of uninsured drivers (22%) on the road. The state has a death toll of 1.53 deaths for every 100 million miles.”

Law journal the Louisiana Record headlined last week that “Tort reform has yet to lower Louisiana auto insurance rates, new data suggests. A 2020 tort reform measure has given consumers a false hope of auto insurance rate reductions in the wake of a new study predicting rising premium rates this year in Louisiana. The average cost of auto insurance in the state is now $3,720, which is 92% higher than the U.S. average, ValuePenguin reported.

 And here is what was reported in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.  “Louisiana drivers will pay the highest prices for auto insurance in the nation next year despite having passed a sweeping tort reform law that was sold as a way to dramatically lower premiums by as much as 25%, an insurance industry executive, who was one of the primary forces behind the legislation, told a panel of primarily Republican businessmen and legislators, who helped pass the new law.”  The panel was told that “Lowering auto insurance rates really wasn’t the point of the tort reform legislation.” 

So after legislators and the insurance commissioner told legislators that auto insurance rates would drop by 25% by the end of the year, we now learn that the whole lobbying effort by the insurance industry was a ruse! A sham! bogus! A fraud! The insurance industry will line their pockets at the expense of Louisiana policyholders.

Policyholders all over the state are being shortchanged by the failure of those in charge to act and build fairness into the insurance regulatory system.  And  you wonder why  this are so few new residents moving into Louisiana.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL IN LOUISIANA, BUT IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOTBALL COACH!

Monday, January 10^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL IN LOUISIANA,

 BUT IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOTBALL COACH!

 

Perception and reality often intertwine.  At Louisiana’s flagship university as well as other major universities across the country, any talk of the so called “revered tradition of amateurism” has gone by the wayside.  College athletes are now able to shop their athletic abilities to the highest bidder and jump from school to school at will.

 

But the perception is a bit different at LSU.  Want to see how the state is viewed by the rest of the nation?  Take a look at this past weekend’s headlines in the Washington Post. 

 

“In Baton Rouge, there’s a $100 million football coach and everyone else. While LSU pays Brian Kelly millions, Baton Rouge residents -- and even LSU students and employees -- scrape by.”

 

Coach Kelly seems like an amiable guy and a good football coach. But he’s migrating down to a state that consistently is ranked at the bottom of the barrel in key quality of life indicators.  In the most recent ranking by U.S. News and World Report, Louisiana was graded as the worst state to live in including being listed as  worst in the nation for opportunity, crime & corrections, natural environment, education and healthcare. 

While LSU is making their new coach the highest paid in the nation, it’s ranking in the latest survey by U.S. News & World Report slipped 19 spots and the school is tied for 172nd among national universities. LSU is also next to last among the 14 schools in the Southeastern Conference, ahead of only Mississippi State University.

 

 Louisiana colleges are in a financial free-fall, with new budget cuts being imposed yearly. LSU has seen its state-funding cut by over 40% in recent years. The endowment of the state’s flagship university is one of the lowest of any major colleges in the country. 

Yes, some will say, but no state funds are used to pay for the coach’s salary. Not so says my former Louisiana State Senate colleague Tony Guarisco.  “It is a myth that “no public money” is being used for LSU athletics,” says Tony.  “It’s past time to put the quietus on that bromide. The truth is that it is almost all “public money! 

 

“Donations to the 501(c)3 Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) are the coins of the realm. Federal tax deductions fund sports entertainment at the university. For example, money destined for the common good is diverted to the TAF through federal tax write-offs. This is called “supplanting.”

“As for season ticket holders, Tiger Stadium is truly “Death Valley” As a precondition to buying a ticket, fans must “donate “a fee to the Foundation for the right. -a clever, but questionable legal subterfuge. The administration is complicit in this dubious scheme. “

 

Here is where the perception problem really hits home. When national companies are looking for expansion opportunities in new states, particularly in the south, they consider a variety of factors. Important quality of life factors for their employees who may be relocating. When they look at Louisiana, they see a state ranked at the bottom of the barrel in national listing after listing. 

 

But then these companies see what’s really important down in the deepest of the deep southern states. It’s not healthcare, education, cleaning up the environment, or having affordable insurance rates. No, it’s making their football coach the highest paid in all of America.

 

Something is definitely wrong with the way priorities are set in the Bayou State.  But with all the money earmarked only for sports, don’t expect much to change. After all, we only care about winning football games.

 

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“Football: A sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.”

 

― Elbert Hubbard

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

SHOULD THE FEDS MAKE LOUISIANA A PROTECTORATE? HECK YES!

Monday, January 3^rd, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

SHOULD THE FEDS MAKE LOUISIANA A PROTECTORATE? HECK YES!

Hey, I have a good suggestion for a New Year’s resolution. Have you heard the cries that Louisiana is unable to take care of its problems, and should be treated differently than other states? Some even say, OK, then — make it a protectorate of the federal government.  And you know what?  Maybe that isn’t too bad of an idea.

The proposal took legs recently when Froma Harrop, a nationally syndicated columnist broached the idea in print. “Louisiana has had more than its share of tragedies in recent years, and some, such as some major hurricanes, could be deemed an act of nature.  But whatever the cause, every calamity that befalls Louisiana is made worse by a corrupt civic nature. A protectorate could provide the structure of government people need.”

CNN travel editor Chuck Thompson drove the dagger in deeper in his recently released book, Better Off without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Succession.”  He summed up his, and purportedly other Yankee feelings, by calling the leadership down here in the deep South “a coalition of bought-and-paid for political swamp scum from the most uneducated, morbidly obese, racist, morally indigent, xenophobic, socially stunted, and generally ass-backwards part of the country.”

So if that is a growing northern attitude towards us poor lost souls in the Bayou state, maybe we should consider seceding and let the U.S. make us a protectorate like Harrop and others above the Mason-Dixon Line suggest. As a rule, so-called protectorates receive much more in financial aid from their respective overseers than the country or state being protected contributes. 

How about this!  Louisiana becomes an independent protectorate of the U.S., with Washington providing all the international protection like they do for Canada and Mexico. Sure the U.S. can continue to use the port of New Orleans (largest port in the nation), as well as Baton Rouge (third largest in tonnage) and Lake Charles (5^th largest in tonnage), but of course there would be fees similar to those charged in other international ports. The oil and gas would continue to flow to the rest of the country, but with adequate severance and processing fees for the quite reasonable sum of $7 billion to $10 billion. This is much less than the importation charges that the U.S. is paying OPEC countries now.  No more groveling for a small share of offshore oil payouts.

Mississippi might also want to join in the protectorate effort. The two states might even agree to create a “coastal nation of Louisissippi.”  The French would be appalled, but who cares.

So who is going to run this new protectorate? The test?  Who knows how to get results?  There really are only two candidates for the job.  One is former Army General Russell Honoré.  He’s the “John Wayne dude” who blew into New Orleans post Katrina and took charge of the disastrous recovery efforts.  He lives in New roads and seems to be well rested and ready. And right there in contention is new LSU football coach Brian Kelly. OK. OK. Just listen to my reasoning. LSU will pay him $100 million dollars plus numerous perks, while the governor is only paid $130,000 a year So look at all the money the state would save!

The Ambassador to Washington? The “Ragin Cajun,” James Carville is the man to demand fair respect for the Bayou State in the nation’s capital. And it would have been an easy choice before he died to pick a state treasurer.  New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson would have been, hands down, the best guy to go after the foreign aid.  He was Louisiana’s greatest robber baron, having talked the Louisiana Legislature out of $600 million dollars.  Remember that no other NFL team has received a penny from their respective states. He definitely would have been the man to go after to get the money.

The state flag would be a combination of black, purple and gold.  And of course, native-born Randy Newman (Louisiana-They’re Going to Wash Us Away.”) should write the national anthem.

Maybe the columnists are right, and we should give it a try. Let the feds protect Louisiana’s borders and let us keep all our minerals.  If you look at the numbers, I have a hunch that any redneck or Cajun would jump at such a deal.

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Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.