Timothy A. Dimoff - Life Rage

Kids And Guns In America!

Kids shooting kids. Kids killing kids. These horrifying incidents are becoming a major concern in America. It shouldn’t take a Columbine, a Jonesboro or a series of drive-by shootings to make us realize that American children—our children—are more at risk from firearms than are the children of any other industrialized nation. We don’t want to believe it, but the statistics clearly prove the truth.

In one recent year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada and 5,285 in the U.S. How can we live with this waste of our most precious assets?

Presently, the debate by adults on the right to carry concealed guns is hot and controversial. I believe the focus of our efforts, time and money should be on smart handling of guns, especially in our homes. Secondly, improved manufacturing of guns (specifically, better safety mechanisms) is needed.

In the United States, young children die or are badly injured because their parents or other gun owners don’t store their firearms properly. Meanwhile, the powerful gun lobby opposes every common sense measure that would reduce the accessibility of firearms to our children. The NRA fights against such simple measures as mandatory trigger locks, childproof, "personalized" guns, or even the enactment of fundamental child access prevention laws.

The rate of American gun violence has dramatically increased over the last fifteen years…and American children are paying the price. From 1984 to 1994, the firearm death rate for 15-19 year-olds increased 222%, while the non-firearm homicide death rate decreased almost 13%. Within five years, firearms are expected to overtake motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death among American children.

Of course, cars do kill children; so do poorly made toys and swimming pools and hundreds of other household products. But of all the thousands of products with which children have contact, only one—firearms—is completely exempt from consumer protection regulations. Back in 1972, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created, the gun lobby’s political power was successful in keeping guns exempt from regulation.

Many guns have so little trigger-pull resistance that they can be fired by a three- year-old. Some guns fire if dropped on the floor. Certain semi-automatic handguns lack magazine safety disconnects (load indicators). This means that children have no way of knowing whether or not a gun that appears to be unloaded may actually have a bullet in the chamber.

Products with even the slightest safety hazard are often recalled. In 1999, major auto manufacturers installed inside trunk latches on new cars because 11 children had died in the preceding year by suffocating in locked car trunks. Ironically, there are more safety standards governing the manufacture of toy guns and teddy bears than there are for a real gun. Does this make any sense?

Imagine a car made of a metal so inferior that passengers could be crushed, even in accidents at low speeds. Or imagine a car that doesn’t have seat belts or locks on its doors, and whose doors are so flimsy that a child could easily open them and fall out while the car is moving. Is this car unsafe? Should the car manufacturer change the design of the car to prevent such accidents from occurring? Of course.

But suppose the manufacturer says that these accidents are not its responsibility? What if the auto maker says the car functions exactly as it is supposed to: it runs well and gets you where you want to go. The manufacturer says that it is the passengers’ responsibility to make sure they don’t fall out, and that it is the driver’s responsibility to make sure the car doesn’t get hit. Is that a reasonable argument to make? Yet a comparable problem exists today in America with guns!

The gun industry and their mouthpieces at the NRA have fought every reasonable effort to enact legislation that would protect children from guns. They fight laws that mandate the sale—not the use, just the sale—of trigger locks with new firearms. Although 18 and 19 year olds commit more crimes than any other age groups, the gun industry opposes raising the age for handgun possession to 21—the same age at which we permit young people to drink.

The NRA has developed a special program, "Eddie Eagle," which does put responsibility on young children not to touch or play with guns. But this program does not send any message to adults about keeping the guns inaccessible, unloaded or safeguarded with trigger locks.

Other statistics are alarming:

For every child killed with a gun, four are wounded. The rate of firearm deaths of children 0-14 years old is nearly twelve times higher in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized nations combined .
Over 6,000 students were expelled in 1996-97 for bringing guns to school. It is estimated that between 36% and 50% of male eleventh graders believe they could easily get a gun if they wanted one.
In 1996, more than 1,300 children aged 10-19 committed suicide with firearms. Two-thirds of all completed teenage suicides involve a firearm.
The firearm injury epidemic, due largely to injuries caused by handguns, is 10 times larger than the polio epidemic of the first half of this century.

Laws to prevent children from gaining access to guns have been passed by 17 states. These states hold gun owners criminally liable if children access their loaded weapons and hurt themselves or someone else. Research demonstrates that in the 12 states that had passed the CAP laws by 1997, accidental deaths of children from firearms decreased 23% in the two years after the laws went into effect.

What are some of the solutions to this growing American epidemic? There are steps that the gun industry can and should take which would reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries in our society. Change is needed in all aspects of the business, from design and manufacturing standards, to marketing,advertising, and sales practices. Gun industry reform includes the following:

Design and manufacture: An emphasis on safety innovations instead of making guns more deadly. Gun manufacturers are well aware that the lack of safety features in the design of firearms leads to unintentional shootings, suicide and criminal use of stolen firearms. Many of the needed safety features are readily available and inexpensive, such as a load indicator, which tells the user that the gun is still loaded, or a magazine disconnect safety, which prevents the gun from firing if the ammunition magazine is removed. Childproofing and personalizing guns are relatively simple and inexpensive, requiring only a locking mechanism that prevents unauthorized users from firing it.
Design and manufacture: Guns appropriate for legitimate civilian use. Gun manufacturers have continually designed and supplied to the market firearms that are suitable only for criminal—not legitimate—use. For example, assault weapons, low quality junk guns, "Saturday night specials" have been disproportionately used in crime. Furthermore, there is simply no need for cop-killer bullets and mail-order parts, which allow an individual to assemble an untraceable gun without a serial number—both products of the gun industry. The industry must stop supplying the market with guns which are attractive to criminals and which have no legitimate civilian use.
Advertising: Being honest about the risks. Advertising should not make claims suggesting that guns in the home enhance personal security. Guns are rarely used for self-protection. In fact, having a gun in the home increases the risk of homicide, suicide or unintentional injury. Advertising should also avoid messages that are likely to make the industry’s products more desirable to criminals or others prone to violent behavior. Some advertising, for instance, boasts a fingerprint-resistant finish. Advertising should not be permitted in publications with a substantial youth readership. All advertising should include warnings about the risks of having guns in the home.
Distribution and sales practices: Stemming the flow of guns to the illegal market. It is the responsibility of the industry, from the manufacturer to the wholesaler to the retail gun dealer, to work together to limit the opportunity for guns to cross over from the legal to the illegal market. The industry needs to set standards for dealers, train dealers to recognize gun traffickers and straw purchases, and hold gun stores accountable it they knowingly or recklessly sell guns to criminals.

Another area of great concern is the private sale of guns at gun shows. These events are just like your friendly, neighborhood yard sale—except they are actually unregulated arms bazaars. There are currently no regulations for the sale of guns at the typical gun show. Thus, the gun show becomes a place where those planning to use guns in crimes are able to meet unlicensed sellers and avoid the very laws meant to cut down on gun violence. The purchaser of the gun is not asked if he/she is a felon, underage, etc. But, if the same person bought the same gun from a licensed gun supplier in a store, they would be asked these questions.

It is estimated that between 2,000 to 5,000 gun shows are held annually in the U.S. In 1998, in the state of Texas alone, there were 472 gun shows. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) found that approximately 10% of the guns used in crimes by juveniles and children were sold at gun shows and flea markets.

At Littleton, Colorado, two 17-year-old boys procured two shotguns, an assault rifle and a TEC-9 assault pistol and shot 26 students, killing 13 of them before turning the guns on themselves. The ATF investigation found that all four of the weapons had passed through the hands of unlicensed dealers at gun shows. Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh made large gun purchases at Texas gun shows. It is estimated he had at least 200 automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles stockpiled, plus thousands of rounds of ammunition. Lastly, 25-50% of the vendors at most gun shows are unlicensed dealers.

Some final and interesting statistics:

There are over 200 million guns in America. That is almost one gun for every man, woman and child in the United States.
There is a gun in 43% of households with children in America.
There is a loaded gun in one in every 10 households with children.
There is a gun that’s left unlocked and just hidden away in one of every eight family homes.
A gun is used for protection in fewer than 2% of the home invasion crimes.
The risk of homicide in the home is three times greater in households with guns.
The risk of suicide in the home is five times greater in households with guns.
Guns kept in the home for self-protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than to be used in self-defense.
In 1996, handguns were used to murder two people in New Zealand, 15 in Japan, 30 in Great Britain, 106 in Canada, 213 in Germany and 9,390 in the United States.