Earlier this week a three year old boy, son of a Maryland Heights Missouri police officer found one of his father's guns and shot himself to death. My heart goes out to the family as they deal with the death of their child.
For ten years now State Representative Stacey Newman D, dist 73 has been advocating for safe storage laws. She is opposed to guns in general and opposed our concealed carry law specifically.
Her solution is for enacting a safe storage law that would make it a felony here in Missouri should a child find a gun and shoot themselves.
Fortunately there is a great reluctance on the part of the Missouri legislature to enact such a law at this time. Prosecutors are worried they would have to potentially charge a police officer with this crime. While I don't believe that it should be law enforcement officers are the only ones to be worried about, it is nice to know there is resistance to this idea.
Just for comparison, in 2005 there were 789 accidental deaths from firearms in the United States, that equates to .30 per 100,00 people, or roughly the same chance as dying in a plane accident or from bronchitis.
It's not every day that children fly, nor do all children have respiratory illnesses. However, most children bathe everyday. In 2003, 56 children 14 years old and under suffered a fatal firearms accident. Conversely, 86 drowned in bathtubs and a whopping 285 drowned in swimming pools.
So, while Stacey Newman dances in the blood of three year old children by pushing for ineffective gun control legislation, I'll push for parents to teach their children to have proper respect for firearms and if they find one unattended,to immediately find an adult and tell them.
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