Scott seeking tough gun laws

Ryan Carter

For state Sen. Jack Scott (D-Glendale), handgun safety is not all

that different from driver’s safety.

Scott drew the connection between handgun safety and seat belts

Monday as he urged states to pass legislation similar to SB 489,

which requires gun manufacturers to include chamber load indicators

and magazine disconnect safety mechanisms on new guns by 2006.

Outgoing Gov. Gray Davis has signed the bill, which Scott and

backers of the law touted in a news conference Monday outside the

emergency room at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.

“We’ve made cars safer,” he said. “We can do the same things with

guns.”

An indicator lets someone holding a handgun know whether the

chamber is loaded, Scott said. The disconnect safety prevents the gun

from firing when its ammunition magazine is removed.

He and others who spoke at the conference Monday said the industry

has had the technology to add the measures for many years.

“We want to see the rest of the country follow our lead in this

matter,” said Scott, who lost his 27-year-old son Adam on Oct. 23,

1993, to an accidental gunshot.

Joan Hodgman, professor of pediatrics at the USC School of

Medicine and chairman of the Violence Prevention Committee for the

American Academy of Pediatricians, said the bill could help prevent

violence.

“We’re not against guns, but we are firmly in favor of the

sensible management of a gun,” she said. “You can see it if you walk

into an emergency room or when you read the paper.”

Representatives from groups including the Brady Campaign, the

Million Mom March, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Stop Our

Shootings were on hand with Scott on Monday.

According to the Brady Campaign’s Web site, the firearm death rate

among children up to age 14 is nearly 12 times higher in the U.S.

than in 25 other industrialized nations combined.