In many cases, the children shot themselves, while others killed siblings or friends, according to the gun control advocacy group.
At least 157 people were killed and 270 were injured last year in unintentional shootings by children, according to Everytown, an advocacy group for firearm safety.
I really wish more gun owners would embrace the concept of safe storage. Unfortunately between the "Muh Rights" bozos, the ignorant, and the outright criminal there's too many opportunities for kids to come into unsupervised contact with weapons.
Gun owner here in support of safe storage laws. I do think the argument of "the gun should be easily accessible" is valid, only if you don't have kids or anyone that shouldn't have access living with you. But at the same time, having the gun accessible doesn't really matter unless it's literally on you 24/7.
I am for safe storage laws because I don't think the outcome would change much in favor of the gun owner, rather homes with firearms would be safer when they're not accessible by kids or people that shouldn't access them.
Yep. The likelihood of a gun accident happening is much higher than the likelihood that you'll need and be near your firearm in a home invasion scenario. Houses are generally robbed when no one is home, and one of the most likely things stolen is your firearm. It's much more likely to still be there if it's secured properly.
Edit: Also, don't use 1776 for the combination of your gun safe. It's essentially useless if you do.
I've got some issues with safe storage laws, but they're mostly about the inadequacy of the containers that they allow for.
The quick and dirty version is that, at best, safe storage laws require a residential security container (RSC), which is not very secure. It will stop curious kids, but will not stop an older kid that has time on their hands, or is determined and willing to use a destructive attack (e.g., a prybar). If you have a hammer and a long screwdriver, you can probably open most containers that are approved under safe storage laws. An actual gun safe is expensive as fuck, starting at about $5000 and going waaaaaaaaay up; a gun safe will stop pretty much everyone except a professional thief that is personally targeting you.
But the part that really chaps my ass is that RSCs are not only expensive for how little protection they offer, but it's frustratingly hard to even figure out how to compare them against each other if they aren't UL listed. Sometimes the lock on the RSC will be listed, but not the container. Sometimes they'll have a fire rating, but won't have anything for the lock or the resistance to destructive attacks. Unless you find an expert--and there aren't many working at big box sporting goods stores--you won't have any idea what kind of protection you're paying a few thousand dollars for.
EDIT - even after all of that, a safe storage law needs to have some kind of financial incentive built in, like a $1000 tax credit for the the purchase of a container that meets state criteria. Otherwise they're going to seem unreasonably expensive to many people.
The problem here is they include 15+ year olds all the way to 19 in these stats. Which 15-19 year olds are like 80% of all gang violence. So no safe storage laws are going to stop this type of violence. It's just bullshit propaganda stats from everytown.
That's a normal tactic but in this case I went to the data source, Everytown, and reviewed it myself. The highest age included in their data set was 17 and there was a depressing number of children under 8 in there.
The other thing is that this data was specifically about unintentional shootings, meaning that this wasn't gang violence.
It's basically what's on the tin. Negligent and Accidental Discharges. Something that Safe Storage can help to address, especially with the younger kids.
This is why you should teach gun safety to kids in schools. In the US, kids are going to find guns, because some owners are going to be lazy, careless, or just tired and not thinking straight. Things like, if you find a gun, get an adult, a gun is always loaded, even if you think you unloaded it, or never, ever point a gun at something you don't intend to shoot.
Parents should teach their kids this stuff, just like parents should be teaching their kids of sex and healthy relationships. But parents aren't, and so schools need to step into the gap.
I never understood why firearms safety classes were done away with in schools. Nearly every middle and high school had a shooting club for most of the US's history.
People in urban areas--which is most of the country's population--almost exclusively experience firearms as being part of a criminal act. Most people that live in cities don't know people that hunt, or compete in marksmanship, but they hear about murders and shootings in their city all the time. Why do you need training in firearms in schools when the only use--the only use they have consistent exposure to--is criminal?
You can look at electoral maps and see this; most of the geographical area is red/Republican/conservative (typically pro-2A), while most of the population centers where people actually live are blue/Democratic/more liberal. If you went back 50 or 100 years, you'd see more people living in rural areas, which ended up meaning that there were more people that were exposed to hunting, etc.
I currently live in a fairly rural area. Best case scenario, cops take about 15 minutes to get to me. (Realistically, getting attacked by a bear is the most likely scenario that needs a police response.)
When I lived in Chicago--Austin, Humboldt Park, Little Village--I had to call the cops because someone was trying to kick down my front door. It took them about 30-45 minutes to show up, and then they just parked in the alley and didn't even come check, or call me back. Literally nothing. (Come to think of it, they make have just coincidentally parked in the alley, and not been responding to the call at all.) My ex-wife called the police to report a "domestic disturbance"--implying that I was being violent towards her--and, again, it was about 30-45 minutes before they even showed up.
Cops can not protect you, and they have no legal duty to do so. If you are in a marginalized group, cops are more likely to victimize you when you need help rather than actually helping.
The NRA isn't a thoroughly evil organization. The NRA does lots of good things with education and training (albeit in a fudd-y way). What you're thinking about it the NRA-ILA, the lobbying/legislative wing. Those are the people that are generally scum.
In the US, kids are going to find guns, because some owners are going to be lazy, careless, or just tired and not thinking straight.
Then the conditions for being a gun owner are vastly too permissive and the punishments for negligence are vastly too light.
The fact that you just skipped straight over this to blame schools and parents shows that your opinions are already hopelessly compromised by pro-gun rhetoric.
Must be hard to argue against something that demonstrably works. You sound like the kind of person that would also argue that abstinence is the only thing to teach kids in school, since that's the only way to prevent pregnancy and STIs.
I remember on a show (I forget what it was, but its related to court cam but with active police answering calls), and a baby (Im pretty sure it was a 3 year old) somehow got ahold of a gun, got outside of the apartment, and was aiming it a doors.
With guns that were unsecured because their owners lacked the minimum mental capacity that should be a basic requirement to own a gun in the first place.
According to the pro-gun community, themselves a notorious source of unreliable information. Their opinions on Everytown are about as reliable as anti-vax groups opinions on the WHO (and for exactly the same reasons)
Its not a crisis, just think of how small the pile of 157 people would be compared to the pile of unintentional dead from other causes. So in an objective way, I agree of your assessment.
Or you mean now that the facade of the US has been eroded and the racist violent cess pool that is truly there is exposed, less people want to dedicate their life there... Wow, what a concept. You find almost anyone who wants to go to the US that comes from a country that functions. The US is literally the last choice or an outright refusal.
It is of course still a fantastically popular destination for those where the soft power propaganda of Hollywood works, or are escaping true poverty and crime. Something is much better than what they have. The rest of the developed world however, has developed much further.
The only, and literally only, things I've ever heard about the US in a positive light in the past few years is the high income potential and beautiful natural parks. The parks is a load of crap. Beauty like that exists all over the world, but it isn't marketed as well as the US or as famous by movies. Fair enough excuse to visit.
High income potential is the only upside. And with remote work anyone who can work for a US company to pocket the paycheque and live outside its borders, that's the new American dream.