'Murder insurance' or protection in self-defense cases?

This article first appeared on the AP website, I believe. I sent them this letter in response:

I just read the article "‘Murder insurance’ or protection in self-defense cases?" written by Lisa Marie Pane and published online yesterday. Frankly, I was appalled -- not by the subject matter, but by the bias inherent in the writing. The article led off with five paragraphs with an anti-gun tilt before it got to anything that would qualify as objective reporting. Quoted sources included a rep from an anti-gun group (3 paragraphs), an anti-NRA video (3 paragraphs), an insurance company (1 paragraph), an NRA poster (not even a rep! - 1 paragraph), and a university professor (4 paragraphs). And since the video is really an extension of the anti-gun group, that's six paragraphs -- which, by the way, include two paragraphs with unfounded accusations of racism.

Where is a quote from anyone from the NRA or the United States Concealed Carry Association? Or for that matter, where is a quote from anyone who has bothered to get that type of insurance? (As someone who has that insurance, I would have been happy to talk to a journalist about the topic.) The article was decidedly one-sided. For a news organization that call itself "The definitive source for news," this article was a definitive source of propaganda.

If you don't think the media takes its headlines from one source.. you are fooling yourself...angenda driven news...

I believe that having self-defense insurance is a wise idea. I hope I never have to use it, but having the back-up gives me peace of mind. Just because you might think your self-defense effort (with a firearm, knife or whatever) is a justified one, that doesn't mean that the police or that anti-gun prosecutor in your county will. If you get charged with 2nd degree murder because you thought you were in danger of death or grievous bodily harm at the hands of an attacker and used deadly force to defend yourself, the resulting legal defense could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and more if the deceased bad guy's family decides to file a civil suit against you for wrongful death (even if you were found innocent of criminal charges). So I carry insurance to take care of the legal defense, if necessary. My particular insurance is handled by U.S. Law Shield, but there are others out there that are equally good and worth investigating. When one considers the cost of having to pay for a lawyer for any reason (and self-defense cases aren't cheap), the premium cost is really quite reasonable. If armed self-defense is legal in your state (some more than others) and you go to all the expense of getting armed, getting trained to handle self-defense situations, getting a government permission slip (permit) to carry concealed and all that, it runs into some money. My advice is to spend a little more and get self-defense insurance.