Second Call Defense: Concealed Carry Insurance Review

Second Call Defense is one of a few companies that offer legal protection plans for self-defense – commonly, although inaccurately, called “CCW Insurance” or “Concealed Carry Insurance.” In this Second Call Defense review, we’re going to explore what they offer for coverage details, whether they meet our “must have” requirements, and what their defense coverage costs.

There’s no way that we can tell you whether this type of legal protection is right for you, and if so, which company will fit your needs best.

If you’d like to see how they compare to other providers, you should check out our Best Concealed Carry Insurance review where we rank and compare each service. And, if it makes your decision any easier, you should check out attorney Ryan Cleckner’s choice for him and his family in his CCW Safe review. 

But before we begin, I want to let you know that some of the links below are affiliate links that can help us keep our ammo budget going but they will NOT affect your price nor do they affect our advice.

Second Call Defense

A cheaper alternative for concealed carry insurance.

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In this Second Call Defense Review, we’re going to cover:

• What is Second Call Defense?
• How Much Does Second Call Defense Cost?
• What Does Second Call Defense Cover?
• Pros and Cons to Second Call Defense
• Second Call Defense vs Other Options
• Second Call Defense Review: Our Take
• Final Grade for Second Call Defense

In the next couple of sections I’m going to cover the features and pricing of Second Call Defense. However, if you’d like to know how we rank this company against other concealed carry insurance providers, check out our Best CCW Insurance Comparison.

What is Second Call Defense?

Second Call Defense is a company that offers self defense legal protection plans. What this means is that if you subscribe to one of their plans, they’ll provide financial assistance in the event you need to defend yourself against civil or criminal lawsuits/charges due to using a firearm in self defense.

Often this type of service is called “ccw insurance” or “concealed carry insurance.” Although these terms aren’t technically correct (because the service provided is not insurance), they are so commonly used that we’ll use those terms here.

Second Call Defense is one of five providers that we rank and compare in our Best Concealed Carry Insurance article.

How Much Does Second Call Defense?

Second Call Defense costs between $10 and $35 per month depending on the plan selected.

What Does Second Call Defense Cover?

Not all companies offering these legal protection plans are the same. Some Concealed Carry Insurance programs select your lawyer for you or only reimburse you after you’ve paid for something yourself (these are two of our three “must haves” in CCW insurance that we cover in our Second Call Defense review below) 

Comparing CCW insurance providers is very difficult because it can be tough to find direct comparisons of the features they offer.  That’s why we took the time to rank them for you (from our favorite Concealed Carry Insurance provider to our least favorite). [link] 

To help you learn more about Second Call Defense, however, here are the coverages you can expect if you join their program:

Criminal Defense Protection: Many people think that if their gun-use is “justified” that they’ll not be criminally prosecuted. Unfortunately, that’s one of the main reasons for these products: not everyone is going to agree whether it was justified.

For example, the McClosky couple in St. Louis merely held their guns to keep rioters away from their house (they didn’t fire the guns), and they were both charged with felonies.

Hiring a criminal defense lawyer can be extremely expensive and the USCCA pays up to $100,000 towards your criminal defense at their highest tier level.

Civil Defense & Liability coverage: In addition to, or instead of, criminal charges you might have civil lawsuits brought against you by the person(s) you shot or their family members. Because defending these lawsuits (even if you win) can be expensive, Second Call Defense provides up to $1,000,000 in civil defense coverage (depending on your plan).

In addition to the legal protection cost coverage, they also offer up to $250,000 to cover any damages (amounts of money someone suing you wins and you have to pay).

Up Front Money: Sure, reimbursement is better than nothing but the whole point of getting this kind of coverage is so that you don’t have to sell everything you own and borrow money from family members just to try to defend yourself.

You should always pick a plan that gives you the money up front (not all do). Thankfully, Second Call Defense provides the money, as it is needed, up front.

Bail: Second Call Defense provides up to $25,000 as immediate cash for bond which covers a bail amount up to $250,000. Having your lawyer paid for is awesome but, I’m going to want to get out of jail during my trial without having to mortgage my home.

Per Diem: During your trial, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to work. After weeks or months, this can be a serious strain on your finances. So, we always recommend CCW insurance that pays you a daily allowance while you’re in trial (called a per diem). Some CCW insurance options don’t pay anything while Second Call Defense pays you up to $500 per day to compensate you for earnings loss.

Training and Resources: Avoiding a legal fight is often better than winning a legal fight. Having tools and resources to help you know what to do (and what not to do) in a self defense scenario is helpful. Second Call Defense provides online training and a newsletter to keep you informed.

What’s Not Included With Second Call Defense:

No Sales in NY, NJ, WA: Just recently the local governments for these three states banned the sales of “CCW insurance” programs. This doesn’t mean that your CCW insurance won’t work if you’re visiting there, it just means you can’t buy it if you live here. However, this is a limitation for all CCW insurance services right now.

Unlimited Legal Coverage: Unlike other options, like CCW Safe, Second Call Defense has limits to the amount of coverage available for civil and criminal legal defense.

Second Call Defense Pros and Cons

Second Call Defense vs Other CCW Insurance:

As you can see from this table from our Best CCW Insurance Comparison that compares some of the main features of these companies, Second Call Defense is in the middle when it comes to cost and features (they’re also literally in the middle):

Second Call Defense Review: Our Take

If you’re on a budget and don’t want the extra coverage offered by other plans, then Second Call Defense might be right for you.

Out of the 5 companies we reviewed in our Best Concealed Carry Insurance Options article, Second Call Defense was ranked as #3 because their features are limited (capped coverage). However, they ranked higher than two other companies that offer unlimited legal coverage because Second Call Defense offers all three of our ‘Must Haves” while the lower two ranked companies do not. 

For any concealed carry insurance option, we strongly recommend looking for three basic ccw insurance requirements:

1. The ability to choose your own attorney,
2. Money up-front, and
3. A daily allowance to help offset time off work.

Second Call Defense has all three. We’ll cover each.

What we like about Second Call Defense

Meeting our must-have requirements is a big deal to us. That’s why we call them our “must-haves.”

If you need legal support, Second Call Defense gets you your money up-front to allow you to pick the attorney you want to defend you. And, while you’re in trial, and if you select one of their higher tiers of coverage, you get a daily per diem.

We also like the great feedback we’ve received from our industry friends about Second Call Defense.

What we don’t like

Yes, Second Call Defense offers the least expensive coverage option available, we think that the benefits provided by that lowest tier are too low to be effective. In order to get some of the needed benefits, a higher tier must be selected.

And, unfortunately, Second Call Defense places a dollar amount limit on the amount they’ll cover for criminal and civil defense cases. In many instances, this may be enough to cover, or at least seriously help cover, your costs. However, we like the idea of this type of coverage to take care of us in case there is a situation where the cost is so high that we couldn’t possibly cover it (this can easily happen).

Conclusion

Although we like the people behind Second Call Defense and have heard great things from members, for us, it falls short when compared to CCW Safe  or USCCA.

For you, that might be ok because Second Call Defense fits your budget better and you don’t want as much coverage as the other companies provide – if that’s the case, we’re confident you’ll be happy with Second Call Defense.