Gun Control, Firearm Safety, and Misguided Moms
By Jabie Gray
During most of the '90's violent crime declined dramatically. Most criminologists attribute this drop to tougher sentencing laws, and programs such as "Three Strikes" that reduced repeat offenders.
This drop in violent crimes, which predates virtually all of the Clinton era gun control laws, lends little credence to the argument that guns are the root of all crimes. In fact, these results show that there is virtually no correlation between guns and crime.
Recently, the gun control lobby, led by Sara Brady and Handgun Control Inc., has taken the direction that the general public will support stricter gun control if it is presented on a public safety platform, rather than a crime control platform. In fact this has been so successful that they even have groups of mothers marching and demonstrating in favor of stricter gun control laws.
After all, who can argue with the need to protect children and prevent accidents? One of the most widely repeated statement in support of trigger locks and other more restrictive measures is "There are 13 children killed every day by firearms" This statement is frequently used to imply that firearms are the foremost cause of deaths among children. This statement is also frequently used to support the claim that mandatory trigger locks and tighter gun control laws will prevent the majority of these deaths. This is far from the truth.
Lets look at that "statistic" more closely. This often quoted daily figure includes adults aged 18-19 classified as "children", and includes all types of firearm deaths, including police shootings, suicides, and homicides. This figure also includes gang and drug related criminal deaths. Just from the oversubscribed categories, one can see that even if this number of deaths were correct, labeling this number as children's accidents, at the least is erroneous but more likely is just a garden variety lie.
If the goal is to prevent accidental deaths of children, then there are many other places of higher priority to start; areas that would significantly impact the child injury death rate.
Most people would agree that children under 15 years of age are the ones who would benefit the most from trigger locking devices. This statement is made under the premise that most 15 year olds are industrious enough to remove a trigger lock if they wanted to. Trigger locks are not burglar proof, only child resistant. Virtually all trigger locks can be removed with simple hand tools as common as a pair of pliers.
Contrary to what some would like you to believe, according to the latest US Government data, in 1997, the leading causes of accidental deaths for children under the age of 14 was not firearms, in fact, accidental firearms deaths were a distant fifth behind Motor Vehicle deaths, drowning, and burns. There were more than 13 times as many Motor Vehicle deaths as accidental shootings; more than three times as many were victims of drowning as were accidentally shot, and more than twice as many succumbed to death by burns as did accidental shootings. Where is the outcry for pool security? Why are more people not concerned about fires? (See chart for details)
If one examines the data directly, instead of taking the gun control lobby's twisted interpretation at face value, the real picture unfolds.
For example, in 1997, in the age group 15-24 years old, there were a significant number of deaths by firearms. But of that number, only 3.7% were accidental. But again, it is doubtful that trigger locks would have stopped any of these. At this age range a far better solution would be better firearm education.
In that same 15-24 year old age group, homicide was the largest single motive (63%). And of those homicides, over 56% were black males ages 15-24. The motive and demographics for the second largest number of deaths in that same age range is white male suicides at about 22%. The remainder of firearm deaths in the 15-24 year age bracket are statistically significantly smaller groups.
To prevent the largest number of deaths of children ages 0-14, the three best things that could be done is:
A) To prevent the number one cause of death, automobile and traffic deaths we should: require mandatory seatbelts, airbags, and child car seats, to be installed in all vehicles, regardless of the age of the vehicle or it's use, without regard as to whether the vehicle's owner has children or not. We should also install more divided bicycle lanes for bicyclists of all ages to ride safely away from cars. Furthermore, to prevent school children from being injured from vehicles, we should also keep all cars and trucks 1000 feet away from any schools. Additionally, we should not let any person who is not an adult drive any car, nor should we allow any type of drivers training in schools, this will only make kids more likely to want to drive in such a manner as to injure and kill people.
B) To prevent the number two cause of injury death to children, drowning, we should: close all public pools, pool recreation areas, we should require mandatory locked pool gates, and sealed, locked pool covers on private pools. Additionally, we should make owning a pool within 1000 feet of a school a felony. Alternatively, the pool could be permanently drained and filled with dirt. This should be required of all pools without regard for location, or if the pool owner has children or not. We should also criminally prosecute adults who negligently allow their children to drown, such as infants in the tub, or toddlers in the pool.
C) To prevent the number three cause of injury deaths, we need to look at fires and burns: steps taken should include mandatory fire escapes and fire sprinklers in all buildings and homes, and fire extinguishers in all rooms of every house. We should also hold criminally responsible the adult in whose house an incident occurs for accidental fires or burns that result in the deaths of minor children. This prosecution should include negligent keeping of matches and other dangerous or hot objects around the house that could burn a child.
I realize that some of these measures that I have mentioned seem harsh and unworkable, and most don't make sense. But these same measures applied to guns are already law or proposed to be law, yet would save an even fewer number of children every year than applying the same measures on these larger problems.
Common sense tells us that there are far better solutions to these problems, solutions such as:
A) Improve motor vehicle safety and driving habits, including providing better and more drivers training for all ages. Teach bicycle and pedestrian traffic safety at an early age and encourage the use of bicycle helmets. Parental education on proper use of car seats and seat belts for children is of the utmost importance.
B) Teach swimming at an early age, promote better pool safety, and provide more first aid training. Educate more parents and family members on the dangers of home drowning, including how little water an infant needs to drown in.
C) Promote better home fire safety, and ways to prevent child injury from other household dangers. Encourage the proper use of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Educate the public on the need for a family emergency evacuation plan, and what to do in case of fire, and how to administer home first aid.
In summation, groups such as the "Million Mom March" should probably be more appropriately called the "Misguided Mom March" where as their motives were mostly noble, they were horribly misguided. Their goals of fewer children dying would be far better achieved by pursuing several other courses of action, aimed at other causes of injury death.
I am not against intelligent use of trigger locks and firearm safety, in fact, firearm safety should be the number one goal of all firearm enthusiasts, but intelligent is the operative word, not mandatory. If a person has five trigger locks at home or a gun safe, is requiring him to purchase one with every gun he purchases a gun going to make him more likely to use a trigger lock? No, I suggest it will not. Firearm education to children of all ages and educating firearm owners to the proper storage and use of firearms are much better solutions.
Educating children and youths in the proper use of firearms, including firearm safety in schools, and offering more youth firearms training, and teaching what to do at all times around firearms should be priority number one. Educating firearm owners to the proper methods of firearm storage and use is second. But both needs are extremely important.
To prevent the two largest groups of firearms deaths of youths aged 15-24 we need to look further. The largest block of deaths is homicide on black males, aged 15-24. I suggest that the majority of these deaths are gang and drug related violence. To prevent or reduce these, we need to look at deeper social issues than can be explored here. The second largest block we need to look at is white male suicides. Suicides are tragic no matter what the implement used is, but we must not blame the gun, because the implement is not the cause. Most mental health professionals agree that somebody who is determined to commit suicide will succeed. They will find a way no matter what. Societal pressures and expectations are some of the causes, but again, exploring the causes in depth is beyond this writing.
The solution to the goal of fewer children dying is not trigger locks, or more gun legislation. We need to look elsewhere for those solutions.