Be SMART - Gun Safety Now
From Moms Who Demand Action (for Gun Sense in America):
If you haven't already, get *very* familiar with these letters — they're the core of our new #BeSMART campaign. Following these easy steps can help reduce unintentional child shootings that occur once every 36 hours.
The latest school shooting was on a school bus in Florida. Shooting into a bus full of kids. (It was gang-related and probably done by juveniles who should NOT have any access to guns.)
We can do this. Given the huge number of accidental shootings in this country (not to mention the suicides and actual murders), we either have too many guns or too many careless people who own guns. We probably can't do anything about the number of guns but we can do something about the numbers of careless people.
Comments
NRA member
How can weapons purchased as "personal protection" be kept securely, out of the hands of children or thieves?
'Be always thought those guns in safety holsters would be awfully tempting to a child (a school security guard had his taken by a child recently). What's the training to keep that from happening, especially when it's a kid's prank and not an attempt to disarm the gun holder?
And don't get me started on the wacko "arm the school staff" craziness.....
There are 2 studies in the pediatrics literature published about 10 years ago. One looked at children ages 4-5 years and the other at ages 6-7. The researchers put them thru the training then later evaluated their reaction to finding a gun (unloaded!) in a playroom full of toys.
Guess what? Even the young kids could parrot back Eddie's message about "Stop, don't touch, leave the room, find an adult," but in the controlled environment, when they found the gun, they didn't do any of those things. They picked it up, they played with, they didn't go find any adults. And that is how to determine whether a program works. Being able to repeat the words is meaningless if the kids don't actually act on them.
A gun is an attractive nuisance. We can't expect young children to comprehend the dangers and act accordingly, even after we've "trained" them. If we could just tell our kids to avoid dangers, we wouldn't put covers over our outlets or gates at our staircases or fences around our pools, right?
It's silly to think that we can use cartoon birds to train 5 year olds not to touch a gun. But that's not really what Eddie was designed for. Many believe he's just Joe Camel with wings.
In the end, it's up to adults to make sure children cannot access loaded firearms. There is no substitute for parental responsibility.
I have no idea what the NRA's "official position" is on how weapons for personal protection are stored around the house, but there are many small safes on the market that provide both secure storage for a handgun and easy access when necessary.
They're the best of both worlds, and are sized to fit in nightstand drawers, the center console of vehicles, etc..
Lawful gun owners are far more law abiding than the population as a whole. In fact, there was a study recently done that showed that police officers commit crimes at a higher rate than concealed weapons permit holders.
NRA member
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14702451
The abstract is written in clinical psychology-ese, but, the bottom line is that the training programs didn't translate to real life situations -- kids could repeat the messages they'd learned about gun safety, but they still played with guns when they found them. The Eddie Eagle program was specifically evaluated and found to be unsuccessful in preventing children from playing with guns when they encountered them.
zb
On the incidence of crime committed by holders of concealed carrier permits, I can find two cites to advocacy groups:
1) Violence policy center (gun regulation advocacy site): http://concealedcarrykillers.org/ which examines killings by concealed carry permit holders (gleaned from news reports). Bottom line number: 743 deaths in their database.
2) John Lott at the Crime Prevention Center (gun advocacy site) that compares police crime to rates of revocation of concealed carry permits (in FL) to the rate of police facing weapons violations (everywhere). http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/2015/02/comparing-conviction-rates-between-police-and-concealed-carry-permit-holders/
And, an analysis of the problems of apple/orange comparisons such as those in the Lott post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-woods/concealed-handguns-the-st_b_822459.html
zb
The laws need to forbid gun ownership.
Repeal the second amendment.
hippie
Are there any other civil rights you'd like us to give up?
You're entitled to your opinion. Good luck with your proposed amendment to the Constitution.
NRA member
I haven't kept up-to-date with the US constitutional crises that are so ominous and imminent that US firearms owners must leave their weapons loaded and out of safes so they can be stolen or used by the wrong people. I've read that even some police officers have left their firearms available for their children to use, with tragic results.
I'd think that guns thieves can't get hold of would be less likely to be used in incidents where the security of a free state is not at risk. Just as a mobile phone that is shut off or has its ringer set to "silent" or is inaccessible to the driver of an automotive vehicle in traffic is not likely to be involved in a "distracted driving" accident.
I apparently live in a culture or area where most people think otherwise. Their logic is... unaccessible to me.
--DurnedFerner
I'd also take away the civil rights of corporations, maybe the right to discriminate based on sex orientation and gender preference.
But the 2nd amendment is top of my list, and as for luck, I think the routine blooddbaths and child deaths, maimings and terror caused by the proliferation of firearms will eventually lead to abolition. Too bad so many, many people will suffer before then.
hippie
Regards,
Jacky
Regards:
Jacky
Mass License To Carry Class
guns-hunting