Greater Gun Safety, Now
Look around your kitchen, your office or your child’s room: It’s a safe bet that most of the appliances, furnishings, toys and office equipment came with labels or pamphlets warning of the hazards these products may pose to life and limb. Some may strike responsible adults as silly or self-evident--labels that caution against immersing an electric blow dryer in water, for instance. But the federal consumer protection laws that require these warnings are credited with making household product safety a top priority and saving many lives.
Unfortunately, the most dangerous product in many homes remains totally outside the reach of these laws. We’re referring to the more than 200 million firearms in America.
There is not one legally mandated safety standard or child-proofing requirement for American-made guns, as a Times report by Jeff Brazil and Steve Berry showed Sunday. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is forbidden by law to even move in this direction.
Guns are designed to be dangerous to any creature they are pointed at, but they should not be dangerous by accident. Every year some 1,500 people die in accidental shootings and thousands more are wounded, many of them children. With toy guns subject to myriad consumer protections, it is a no-brainer to insist that real guns should be as well. Most people get it, but not this country’s powerful gun lobby. It opposes requirements for even minimal safety devices, such as a safety catch, as an infringement on Americans’ right to bear arms.
What nonsense. And what tragedy that Congress has wrought by shrinking from this responsibility. During the many years that gun safety proponents have vainly pressured Congress to reverse a 1972 law exempting guns from product safety laws, 34,000 people have died in accidental shootings and 300,000 have been injured, often by guns they thought were not loaded.
Children of course are in extreme peril if they play with loaded guns. Sensitive trigger mechanisms are one problem. There are many more. Even trained adult marksmen have fallen victim to inadequate safety features. Last week, a police weapons trainer in Santa Ana accidentally killed himself when he flipped a switch that made a jammed gun go fully automatic, spraying bullets. One struck him in the neck. Simple, mostly inexpensive changes could help save lives. Make triggers harder to squeeze so small children can’t fire a weapon. Require built-in trigger locks and an indicator that shows whether a bullet is chambered.
At least four times since 1991, sensible lawmakers have asked Congress to require that guns include basic safety equipment. Each time, the effort died, and it’s no secret who supplied the bullet that killed the legislation.
Concerned members of Congress, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, say they plan to reintroduce legislation in the coming session. We implore their colleagues to do the right thing this time.
