My research shows that such mandatory rules will make families less safe. Accidental guns deaths involving children are very rare, when they do occur they don't involve the child firing the gun, and the locks make it difficult for people to use the guns defensively. The new Virginia rules are available here:
R. Possession of any weapons, including firearms, in the home or independent living arrangement shall comply with federal and state laws and local ordinances. 1. Any firearms and other weapons shall be unloaded and stored with the weapon's safety mechanisms activated in a locked closet or cabinet. 2. Ammunition shall be stored in a locked location separate from the weapon. 3. The key or combination to the locked closet and cabinet shall at all times be maintained out of reach of all children in the home.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked enforcement of a first-in-the-nation law that restricted what Florida physicians can say about guns to their patients, ruling the law violates the U.S. Constitution's free speech guarantees and does not trample gun rights.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said it was important to emphasize "the free flow of truthful, non-misleading information within the doctor-patient relationship."
"This case concerns one of our Constitution's most precious rights — the freedom of speech," Cooke said. "A practitioner who counsels a patient on firearm safety, even when entirely irrelevant to medical care or safety, does not affect or interfere with the patient's right to continue to own, possess or use firearms."
The law was passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law June 2 by GOP Gov. Rick Scott. The governor, the National Rifle Association and other supporters contended it was a violation of privacy and possibly the Second Amendment for doctors to question patients about guns at home.
But physicians' groups representing some 11,000 doctors and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence sued. They said the law halted meaningful discussions between doctors and patients — especially parents with guns — about keeping the weapons out of the hands of children.
Dr. Lisa Cosgrove, president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the ruling will help save lives. She said doctors routinely counsel patients about safety issues at home, on everything from backyard swimming pools to use of bike helmets. . . .
Accidental deaths general fall over time. What this is saying is that accidental gun deaths have been falling at a faster rate.
No one blames "our nation as a whole" for the tragic accidents that claim the lives of children, and adults, involving automobiles, swimming pools, poisonings, suffocations and falls, all of which rank far higher than firearms as causes ("Collateral damage," July 25). In fact, less than 1 percent of fatal accidents in the home are the result of firearms, according to the National Safety Council. Let's not demonize firearms or lawful firearms owners in the search for answers to the unfortunate accidental deaths of three city-area children. Let's instead remind the public that such accidents are rare and can be prevented by taking steps to ensure that guns cannot be accessed by children or other unauthorized persons. Place unloaded guns in locked storage. Store ammunition in a locked location separate from firearms. If a gun is kept in the home for protection, make sure only authorized persons can access it. Quick-access lock boxes are suitable for this. . . .
I don't really think that trying to convince people to lock up there guns makes a lot of sense from a safety campaign because it ignores how much harder all this makes it for people to use guns defensively.
Ontario police shut down a portion of a major highway because of a minor police call involving someone who owned registered guns. The big offense turns out to be in the end that trigger locks weren't properly attached to his registered guns, even though there were not kids in the home and the guns were stored in a "closet" (actually I am told in a gun case). Is this really serious?
What started as a simple squabble between two grown men turned into a major calamity Sunday when the OPP and the tactical team shut down a section of Hwy. 11 for the entire night.
Police responded to a 911 call after a man reported he had been assaulted by his roommate, Ron Woods, who is also the owner of the home on Hwy. 11 just north of Barrie.
The red flags went up when police learned Woods owned firearms.
Police shut down the highway between Line 5 and Line 9 and the tactics and rescue unit surrounded the area around midnight.
Soon the region’s emergency response ream and the canine unit joined in and the place was swarming with officers with machine guns.
The highway was reopened at 6 a.m. Monday after Woods, 51, who claims he had no idea of what was going on, surrendered to police and was taken into custody.
“They threw a flash grenade through my window,” said a battered and bruised Woods, as he limped out of court after being released on $4,000 bail. “They handcuffed me and dragged me out on my face.”
Outside of court he hugged family members who shook their heads and wept.
“We’re confused,” said one family member.
Turns out the weapons were properly registered, in gun cases, stored in a closet but police say the trigger-locks were not applied.
Woods was charged with five counts of improperly stored firearms and one count of assaulting his roommate. . . .
Fox News for example had this from the father, John Carpenter:
"Lott cited a Merced, Calif. family whose guns were put away because of the state's safe storage law. John Carpenter, who lost two children in an attack in 2000, said a gun would have stopped the man who broke into his home with a pitchfork. 'If a gun had been here, today I'd have at least a daughter alive,' Carpenter said."
I also talked to the children's grandfather Rev. John Hilton in person and participated in a radio interview with him where he made very similar statements to the father, though I don't have recordings of either discussion.
Well, now some comments from the father's parent's have now been found. It doesn't seem to line up exactly with what Suprynowicz wrote, but one thing is clear is that the children's parents and the grandparents on both sides of the family are convinced that gunlocks prevented the family from using guns defensively.
I am the paternal grandmother of the two children who were brutally murdered inside their rural Merced California home on August 23, 2000 by a stranger with a pitchfork. Instead of suing gun manufacturers, I am of the opinion it is our lawmakers who need to be sued. It was you who created the laws that kept my grandchildren from being able to defend themselves with any weapon greater than their bare hands. All of my son's children had been trained in the use of firearms but were unable to get to their Dad's weapon because of California State Law. . . .
DC crime data is available here. For a discussion of what Chicago's Mayor Daley predicted would happen see here. My own argument for what has happened focuses most heavily on the Supreme Court striking down DC's gunlock law.
UPDATE: For a discussion on what happened to murder in Chicago after its ban ended see here.
Duffy shot back at her husband with claims that he often smoked pot, watched adult-themed shows on television in Galen’s presence and kept loaded guns in the house where she could potentially get to them. She also requested that the court ensure she is financially well taken care of should Hopper die before the divorce is finalized, given that their pre-nuptial agreement as it stands would leave her with very little of the actor’s earnings.
