re: #638 Dragon_Lady

I really don’t understand why the shipping companies don’t have armed guards on the ships as a matter of security! I mean they have millions of dollars of cargo on board and their insurance companies should be insisting on armed guards on board! Kind of reminds me of the jewelry industry in a way. To get insurance in the jewelry industry the insurance companies have enacted deterrent measures that the Jeweler must have in place in order to get a policy. Bars on the front windows, shatter proof glass on the show cases, timed safes, motion sensor alarms, security guard in the lobby and so forth and so on. Why the heck isn’t the shippers insurance company’s insisting on armed security on those ships? This makes no sense to me.

From what I have read they just don’t think it makes economic sense. The added cost of training their crews to use the weapons is prohibitive. And I believe the cost of insurance actually goes up with weapons on board, as the assumption is that they will be used. The odds of a pirate hijacking are still extremely low relatively, so the shipping companies don’t want to lay out the extra cash.