A liberal’s take on gun culture. I was prepared to lose my temper but it was not what I thought it would be and he is more liberal than progressive- which I think is the real problem with the Democratic Party in the past 60 years.
Interesting point about safe storage. I know all the arguments and access to firearms is a right, but in the real world would less access to stolen guns and underage people help take the collective pressure off these silly mag bans and evil features round-ups.
96% of gun owners don’t belong to the NRA, not that hard to believe when membership is a $600 plug and might be more than people paid for all their guns.
Just another take that I haven’t seen in print before.
Safe storage is brought up by people who also talk about mass shootings. Even though safe storage would not have prevented any mass shooting, it’s almost brought up at the same time. You want to encourage safe storage by offering a tax credit for gun safes? I’m plenty fine with that!
About 2-4% of gun owners are NRA members. That’s easy math if you figure 140-160 million gun owners are in the States and 4.5 million NRA members.
I would like to see safe storage laws provided they still allow a homeowner the ability to have a weapon on them or with in reach when they are home for self defense. When they leave the home the guns either need to be locked up or with them. That would cut down on a lot of firearms accidents involving children and it would stop a lot of guns from being stolen. Most of the gun theft cases I have worked involve people who took no steps at all to secrue their weapons. They usually left them out or put them in the bed stand. Both stupid ways to leave your firearm when you leave your home.
Pat
The safe storage stuff is garbage because MOST gun owners only have an old rifle or pistol or shotgun, and aren’t going to spend 1k on a safe to protect a gun worth a couple hundred. My liberal MIL is a ‘gun owner’ since my FIL passed away, and no she is not paying for a NRA membership.
In TX we have a law you can be prosecuted under if a minor gets a hold of one of your guns, and I think that is BS because to entirely negate that possibility you have to store them in a safe 100% of the time. I could have an AR out for self defense, and go outside to mow the grass, grill a steak, ect, and my kids get’s to my gun I had out for SD. Boom instant criminal on my part, and think goes against the Heller decision.
I do however think its prudent for all gun owners to use caution, and do what they can for ‘safe storage’. I just think these laws about safes and if one of your kids gets a hold of your gun are BS.
Hmm easy fix. When you go out to mow the lawn put the Ar back in the safe or sling it across your chest and mow the grass. There problem solved. Sounds like a good law you have on the minors down there.
Pat
Our city is getting sued for excessive force because a CHL holder was helping someone at a gas station with car trouble, and his shirt rode up. They injured him pretty good ‘taking him down’, and you want me to mow the grass with a slung AR…:rolleyes:
I don’t know what happened with the CHL holder. But if your on your own property with a gun assuming your not drunk or high there is not much anyone can say about it. Of course the sane option is to put it back in the safe and strap on a pistol and mow your grass.
Pat
The “safe storage” is a rather sticky wicket. While I agree gun owners should exercise good judgment in securing their firearms, particularly if there are minors in the home, I’m gonna buck against laws mandating how I store my guns in my home. This should be an educational effort aimed towards shifting behaviors, not a legal issue.
I have been told I should be held criminally liable should someone break into my home, steal a firearm, and commit a crime with that weapon. Sorry, I’m not on board with that.
I don’t think a person should be liable for the crime the criminal does with a stolen gun. However you should be charged with negligence in not securing your gun.
You can extrapolate that to a number of other things. Like you leave for the weekend with your wife, and your son/daughter gets into the booze. You or your wife take prescription meds? Have ‘dangerous tools’?
I mean we can go so far with this everyone would need a personal bank vault in their house.
I agree with Dave. Education, and push safe storage…but making it a criminal affair because people arent checking their guns in and out of their safe all day isn’t something I want to see happen. The Heller case ruled you can’t force people to store their guns locked up or inoperable. I think the minor laws violate that, since to ensure all of my guns are out of my kids reach 100% of the time, they would have to be in the safe 100% of the time.
There is always some risk. No one is going to walk around with a slung ar to mow the grass or cook dinner. If it its my office, and Im cooking dinner, and my kid gets into it? Im a criminal for that? Please.
Yea you could however there is a lot more harm that can come from storing your guns improperly vs your tools. There is always some risk but you can do things to minimize that risk and you should. I got a safe for my guns well before I became a LEO. It also gave me peace of mind knowing my guns were going to be a lot harder to steal. I agree that you need to allow people to keep their guns at hand when they are home for self defense. That is why these laws need to be written very well so peoples rights to self defense is not hampered.
I am also for education as well but you need some teeth to get people to do the right thing. A lot of people are just stupid when it comes to how they secure their weapons. I have friends who fall into this.
Pat
It’s locked in my home. While additional precautions might be well advised, they should not be legally mandated. When the government requires every person with a prescription for a scheduled drug to purchase a locking cabinet and secure their pill bottles, maybe we can revisit the subject.
This subject has been debated here before, not much point in beating a dead horse. We will simply have to disagree on this particular issue.
Statistically, my kids Louisville slugger is more like to be used in a murder than my AR’s…yet I can legally keep that in their room and won’t get in trouble if it’s used in a crime. But my AR…used less in crimes…is a felony offense if I don’t store it in a manner where they can’t get into one of them? That leaves me to risk the ‘minor law’ or keep one out for SD.
True but that is only because the sheer number of Louisvill sluggers out number AR’s by millions. That and baseball bats are handy and available. If someone does get your AR they can kill a lot more people far faster with the AR than the baseball bat. So it makes sense to keep your AR more secure than your baseball bat.
Pat