Presents
Pamphlet #235
"Safe Storage Laws"
We're
told that "safe-storage" laws for guns are all about saving the lives of
our children.
In
fact, these laws lead directly to the deaths of both children and adults.
The
only people to end up safer are violent home intruders.
In
a chapter in a book published last month,
The
Crime Drop in America (Cambridge Univ. Press), Dr. Garen Wintemute
-
one of the intellectual stars of the anti-gun movement -
commented
on "access to firearms" in America.
According
to a 1996 Department of Justice survey,
35
to 40 percent of American households have firearms in them.
(The
true figure may be closer to 1 out of 2 households,
since
some gun owners may be reluctant to disclose private information to pollsters.)….
remarkably,
one-third of handguns in the United States
-
perhaps 20 million guns -
were
stored loaded and not locked away."
Loaded
guns just lying around the homes of Americans, ready for action.
A
clear and present danger to the families in those households?
Not
according to current safety figures.
In
1994, fatal gun accidents reached the lowest annual level since record-keeping
began in 1903.
They've
dropped even lower each year since.
What
should have been "remarkable" to Wintemute is
that
there were just 20 fatal gun accidents among children under the age of
5 in 1998.
Contrast
this with phony claims you hear about "10 children a day killed by guns."
The
greatest part of that factoid comes from gang-related homicides perpetrated
by inner-city,
17-to-19-year-old
male criminals.
Also
contrast the 20 fatal gun accidents for children 0-to-4
with
the near 600 children in that same age group who drowned.
In
fact, more children under the age of 5 drown in 5-gallon buckets of water
than
are harmed in a firearm accident.
You'd
never know this by reading the current fundraising letter
from
Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI),
which
shrieks about parents leaving loaded guns on the dining room table
within
reach of small children.
The
letter doesn't point to any actual instances of such dining-room tragedy.
Rather
it complains that most states don't have a law specifically forbidding
it.
In
truth, all states have reckless endangerment and negligence laws
which
apply to guns, drain cleaner, knives, vodka,
or
anything else that might cause injury in the hands of a small child.
Even
without an HCI-mandated gun-lock law,
parents
know plenty of ways to keep items away from children without using mechanical
locks.
We
are told that "reasonable" trigger-lock laws are the cure for firearm accidents
and gun thefts.
What
we are not told is that trigger-locks won't stop 10-year-olds,
who
can pop them off with screwdrivers, or break them with hammers.
Such
locks certainly won't stop determined criminals.
So
just who is the target of these "reasonable" gun laws, and what's their
real purpose?
Rather
than saving lives,
could
it be that trigger-lock laws are intended to condition Americans
into
believing that firearms aren't acceptable for self-defense, or worth the
bother?
Safe and Sorry
The
most up-to-date research on the effect of gun-storage laws
comes
from Dr. John Lott and Dr. John Whitley
in
a study scheduled for publication in the April 2001
issue
of the Journal of Law and Economics.
In
"Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime",
Lott
and Whitley analyzed the effects of safe storage laws
from
data spanning nearly 20 years.
Their
preliminary findings were released on March 29, 2000.
Lott
and Whitley found that not only did such laws not save lives,
they
cost lives by making it more difficult to have a firearm ready for a sudden
emergency.
During
the first 5 years after the passage of "safe-storage" laws,
the
group of 15 states that adopted them saw average annual increases of murders
(over
300), rapes (3,860), robberies (24,650), and aggravated assaults (over
25,000).
The
significant danger of gun-storage laws was brought home
in
an August incident in Merced, California,
where
a pitchfork-wielding man attacked Jessica Carpenter's 7-year-old brother
and 9-year-old sister.
It's
neither a surprise nor a coincidence
that
the cause of this tragedy went unreported by the national press.
Jessica's
father had kept a gun in the home,
and
his children had learned how to fire it.
Jessica,
age 14, is a very good shot.
But
by California law, the gun had to be locked up when the parents weren't
home.
So,
when the murderer attacked, Jessica wasn't able to retrieve the gun to
save her siblings.
She
ran to a neighbor, and begged for help.
By
the time the police showed up,
the
7-year-old boy and the 9-year-old girl had been stabbed to death with the
pitchfork.
In
the aftermath, the children's great-uncle, Rev. John Hilton,
declared
that their father was "more afraid of the law
than
of somebody coming in for his family.
He's
scared to death of leaving the gun where kids could get it because he's
afraid of the law.
He's
scared to teach his children to defend themselves."
According
to Section 12035 of California's Dangerous Weapons Control Law,
"criminal
storage of a firearm in the first degree"
is
punishable by confinement to state prison for a maximum of 3 years,
and/or
a fine of up to $10,000.
But
it was compliance with California's "safe-storage" laws
-
and the fear of being prosecuted for their violation -
that
cost the Carpenter family two of their children.
Lobbying with Lives
When
it comes to "safe-storage," the real tragedy is that,
despite
all the professed concerns about "the children,"
the
anti-self-defense lobby has no qualms in playing politics with the lives
of children.
Wintemute,
who has a much stronger record for intellectual honesty
than
many other researchers on his side of the gun issue,
admits
that for "child-access prevention laws…
at
this time there is no good evidence that the laws are effective."
Indeed,
there is direct evidence that these are lethal laws.
The
tragedy in Merced is just one graphic instance of the thousands of additional
murders
and
violent crimes that have resulted from criminals being emboldened by gun-storage
laws
that
turn a family's home into a safe zone for violent predators.
The
hidden agenda behind safe-storage laws has nothing to do with safety.
First,
the anti-gun lobby believes that armed self-defense,
by
people who are not government employees,
is
inherently immoral;
so
preventing families from protecting themselves is a step forward for civilization.
The
late David Clarke was the leading anti-gun advocate on the Washington,
D.C. City Council.
He
claimed that his efforts to outlaw gun ownership for self-defense
"are
designed to move this government toward civilization...
I
don't intend to run the government around the moment of survival."
Mrs.
Sarah Brady, Chair of Handgun Control, Inc., agrees:
"To
me, the only reason for guns in civilian hands is for sporting purposes."
As
a direct result of her group's successful lobbying,
the
California government was emphatically not around at
"the
moment of survival" for the Carpenter children.
In
Canada, gun prohibitionists, such as then-Justice Minister Alan Rock,
have
used storage laws as a justification for imposing universal gun registration,
since
registration "will create a sense of accountability
on
the part of the firearms owner to comply
with
some of the safe-storage laws that are in effect."
As
the next step,
the
anti-gun lobbies in Canada (who work closely with their American cousins)
have
begun pushing for "community storage."
Rather
than keeping your guns in a safe in your home,
you
would have to keep your guns at a police station.
When
you wanted to use your gun for the day,
you
could check it out from the police station.
This
latest Canadian ploy isn't really new.
Long
ago, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote that the "sophisticated and subtle tyrant"
will
"unarm his people,
and
store up their weapons, under pretence of keeping them safe."
In
the 1950s, one of the most popular sitcoms was Father Knows Best.
Starring
Robert Young as head of the Anderson family,
it
centered on family values and personal responsibility.
The
show was not entitled Government Knows Best.
Half
a century later, it's still true that parents, not legislators,
know
best how to keep their children safe.
Because
the vocabulary of the debate has a great influence on the debate's result,
people
who really care about family safety need to stop using the words
"safe
storage" when discussing lethal laws like government-storage mandates.
These
laws turn a family's home into a safe zone for criminals.
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