http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/jan/09/516149844.html
January 09, 2004 at 11:32:39 PST
Nevada is given D in gun safety
By Christina Littlefield
LAS VEGAS SUN
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has given Nevada's gun control laws a D grade for the seventh year in a row, but local law enforcement officials, gun safety advocates and gun store owners say Nevada should get extra credit for its other preventive measures.
The Brady report grades the quality of seven state laws the organization believes are critical to preventing gun violence, particularly violence involving children. The national, nonpartisan organization responsible for the federal Brady Bill banning certain assault weapons gave 31 states failing grades of D or F for their gun control laws.
"This is a grade of the lawmakers and not so much the state," Diana Madarieta, Brady western regional director, said. "We want to give as much information as possible to people and want them to know their lawmakers aren't doing very much to protect children from gun violence."
Madarieta praised the other preventive measures that Nevada law enforcement, safety advocates and gun store owners have taken to prevent gun violence, such as handing out free gun locks, providing gun safety education and enacting and enforcing laws that toughen penalties for those who break current laws.
But she said Nevada lawmakers need to mandate the sale of child-safety locks with guns to prevent unintentional shootings and must require all private buyers to go through criminal background checks, especially buyers at gun shows, to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.
University Medical Center treated 33 patients younger than 18 for gunshot wounds in 2003, down from 38 in 2002, spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger said.
If mandating gun locks can eliminate even one of those incidents, Madarieta said, it's worth it.
The organization also criticized Nevada for allowing people to carry concealed weapons with permits and for allowing juveniles older than 14 to possess rifles or shotguns in certain circumstances such as hunting without adult supervision.
The only A that Nevada received was for allowing cities to make their own gun control laws, though the state got B grades for its laws to prevent the sale of firearms to juveniles and to prevent child access to firearms.
Nevada lawmakers, however, said the state's anti-gun control climate made it almost impossible to pass some of the laws the Brady Campaign advocates, especially considering Nevada's rural areas.
"I think it would be extremely difficult to get this legislation passed, it will provide an incovenience on the honest citizen and do nothing to prevent gun violence," Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said.
Goicoechea also said he thinks it is a good thing Nevada law allows children who are ages 14 to 18 to earn hunting licenses, and then use rifles and shotguns on their own.
"It's better to know what a weapon is capable of and to handle it safely then to not be exposed to it," Goicoechea said. "Today we have so many of these video games with guns ... and younger juveniles don't believe that these guns can kill."
Critics of the report, which included both safety advocates and gun store owners, said the Brady Campaign should advocate more gun safety education instead of hammering for more laws.
"I think we really just need to enforce the laws we have and I really think that education is the key," said Scott Leonard, a Boulder City community police officer and a member of the Safe Kids Coalition. "We are always going to have crime, we are always going to have gangs and homicides, but I don't think any law we could have could prevent that."
Instead Leonard and others want to see more gun safety education in schools, such as the national Risk Watch program the Clark County School District has recently adopted. One segment of the overall safety program teaches children to not touch a gun when they come across one and to immediately notify an adult.
Jackie Berman, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Safe Community Partnership's newest injury prevention specialist, said gun safety classes should be mandatory before someone can purchase a gun.
"If you purchase an automobile you have to show your driver's license, they are not going to let you just drive away the car," Berman said, who also agreed with the Brady Campaign recommendation to mandate child locks.
"The number of children sustaining non-fatal firearm injuries are four to five times greater than those who die," Berman said. "And I don't think people realize that. They think it can't happen to them. I think when someone purchases a gun they need to learn how to use it safely and store it safely."
Metro firearms Lt. Robert Duvall and several gun store owners echoed that opinion.
"Unfortunately, most people's idea of what a gun can do comes from what they see on TV," Duvall said. "People need to educate themselves on what a gun can really do."
Bob Irwin, owner of The Gun Store, said allowing a child to see a gun and explaining to them what it does and why it should never be touched often takes away the curiosity factor that might lead to accidents.
"Most kids go after guns because they don't know anything about guns," Irwin said.
The Brady Campaign and gun store owners agree that guns should be unloaded and locked away separately from ammunition in safes. This precaution would protect children and keep guns from being stolen, gun store owners said, as robbery is the No. 1 way guns slip into the hands of criminals.
Madarieta agreed with the need for education, but said the Brady Campaign focuses on laws because it is the adults who are ultimately responsible for the welfare of children, and they need to be responsible for how they handle and store their firearms.
"The more you say that it is not acceptable to leave a loaded gun around, the more (legislators) say that and the more we pass laws that say you will be held accountable for this, the more people will be more responsible," Madarieta said.
Nevada already holds adults legally responsible if they leave loaded guns around children, but Madarieta said the law is only enforced when someone is hurt.
The loophole that allows private gun sellers to bypass background checks also makes it easier for guns to fall into the hands of teens, Madarieta said.
Law enforcement officers and gun store owners, however, said the loophole is not as big as the Brady Campaign makes it out to be.
Most gun shows, for instance, are operated by dealers who are mandated to do the checks. Private sellers also have the option under state law of asking the state to clear someone before they sell the gun.
Clark County and Las Vegas also require registration of all handguns and have a three-day waiting period, which gun dealers said is another back-up to the so-called loophole of not mandating checks at gun shows.
Kelly Carn, the owner of the Machine Gun Kelly's store, said it would be "scary" to sell a gun without a background check.
"I don't want to sell guns that are going to come back and haunt me," Carn said. "As a dealer it is protecting me when I do a background check."
Nevada's grade should also be higher because the state Legislature increased the penalties on four gun control laws in the last session, Duvall said.
In addition to the previous law making it a felony for an ex-felon to possess a firearm, it is now a felony to possess a firearm if one is an illegal alien, addicted to a controlled substance, legally insane, a fugitive from justice or under 18. It is also a felony to knowingly sell or transfer a gun into the hands of one of those people, to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, to obliterate the serial number on a firearm or have a firearm without a serial number.
All of these laws, along with the state law allowing criminal penalties to be enhanced if a deadly weapon was used in the commission of a crime, prevent gun violence and unauthorized use of firearms better then any of the laws proposed by the Brady campaign, law enforcement and gun store owners said.
January 09, 2004 at 11:32:39 PST
Nevada is given D in gun safety
By Christina Littlefield
LAS VEGAS SUN
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has given Nevada's gun control laws a D grade for the seventh year in a row, but local law enforcement officials, gun safety advocates and gun store owners say Nevada should get extra credit for its other preventive measures.
The Brady report grades the quality of seven state laws the organization believes are critical to preventing gun violence, particularly violence involving children. The national, nonpartisan organization responsible for the federal Brady Bill banning certain assault weapons gave 31 states failing grades of D or F for their gun control laws.
"This is a grade of the lawmakers and not so much the state," Diana Madarieta, Brady western regional director, said. "We want to give as much information as possible to people and want them to know their lawmakers aren't doing very much to protect children from gun violence."
Madarieta praised the other preventive measures that Nevada law enforcement, safety advocates and gun store owners have taken to prevent gun violence, such as handing out free gun locks, providing gun safety education and enacting and enforcing laws that toughen penalties for those who break current laws.
But she said Nevada lawmakers need to mandate the sale of child-safety locks with guns to prevent unintentional shootings and must require all private buyers to go through criminal background checks, especially buyers at gun shows, to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.
University Medical Center treated 33 patients younger than 18 for gunshot wounds in 2003, down from 38 in 2002, spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger said.
If mandating gun locks can eliminate even one of those incidents, Madarieta said, it's worth it.
The organization also criticized Nevada for allowing people to carry concealed weapons with permits and for allowing juveniles older than 14 to possess rifles or shotguns in certain circumstances such as hunting without adult supervision.
The only A that Nevada received was for allowing cities to make their own gun control laws, though the state got B grades for its laws to prevent the sale of firearms to juveniles and to prevent child access to firearms.
Nevada lawmakers, however, said the state's anti-gun control climate made it almost impossible to pass some of the laws the Brady Campaign advocates, especially considering Nevada's rural areas.
"I think it would be extremely difficult to get this legislation passed, it will provide an incovenience on the honest citizen and do nothing to prevent gun violence," Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said.
Goicoechea also said he thinks it is a good thing Nevada law allows children who are ages 14 to 18 to earn hunting licenses, and then use rifles and shotguns on their own.
"It's better to know what a weapon is capable of and to handle it safely then to not be exposed to it," Goicoechea said. "Today we have so many of these video games with guns ... and younger juveniles don't believe that these guns can kill."
Critics of the report, which included both safety advocates and gun store owners, said the Brady Campaign should advocate more gun safety education instead of hammering for more laws.
"I think we really just need to enforce the laws we have and I really think that education is the key," said Scott Leonard, a Boulder City community police officer and a member of the Safe Kids Coalition. "We are always going to have crime, we are always going to have gangs and homicides, but I don't think any law we could have could prevent that."
Instead Leonard and others want to see more gun safety education in schools, such as the national Risk Watch program the Clark County School District has recently adopted. One segment of the overall safety program teaches children to not touch a gun when they come across one and to immediately notify an adult.
Jackie Berman, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Safe Community Partnership's newest injury prevention specialist, said gun safety classes should be mandatory before someone can purchase a gun.
"If you purchase an automobile you have to show your driver's license, they are not going to let you just drive away the car," Berman said, who also agreed with the Brady Campaign recommendation to mandate child locks.
"The number of children sustaining non-fatal firearm injuries are four to five times greater than those who die," Berman said. "And I don't think people realize that. They think it can't happen to them. I think when someone purchases a gun they need to learn how to use it safely and store it safely."
Metro firearms Lt. Robert Duvall and several gun store owners echoed that opinion.
"Unfortunately, most people's idea of what a gun can do comes from what they see on TV," Duvall said. "People need to educate themselves on what a gun can really do."
Bob Irwin, owner of The Gun Store, said allowing a child to see a gun and explaining to them what it does and why it should never be touched often takes away the curiosity factor that might lead to accidents.
"Most kids go after guns because they don't know anything about guns," Irwin said.
The Brady Campaign and gun store owners agree that guns should be unloaded and locked away separately from ammunition in safes. This precaution would protect children and keep guns from being stolen, gun store owners said, as robbery is the No. 1 way guns slip into the hands of criminals.
Madarieta agreed with the need for education, but said the Brady Campaign focuses on laws because it is the adults who are ultimately responsible for the welfare of children, and they need to be responsible for how they handle and store their firearms.
"The more you say that it is not acceptable to leave a loaded gun around, the more (legislators) say that and the more we pass laws that say you will be held accountable for this, the more people will be more responsible," Madarieta said.
Nevada already holds adults legally responsible if they leave loaded guns around children, but Madarieta said the law is only enforced when someone is hurt.
The loophole that allows private gun sellers to bypass background checks also makes it easier for guns to fall into the hands of teens, Madarieta said.
Law enforcement officers and gun store owners, however, said the loophole is not as big as the Brady Campaign makes it out to be.
Most gun shows, for instance, are operated by dealers who are mandated to do the checks. Private sellers also have the option under state law of asking the state to clear someone before they sell the gun.
Clark County and Las Vegas also require registration of all handguns and have a three-day waiting period, which gun dealers said is another back-up to the so-called loophole of not mandating checks at gun shows.
Kelly Carn, the owner of the Machine Gun Kelly's store, said it would be "scary" to sell a gun without a background check.
"I don't want to sell guns that are going to come back and haunt me," Carn said. "As a dealer it is protecting me when I do a background check."
Nevada's grade should also be higher because the state Legislature increased the penalties on four gun control laws in the last session, Duvall said.
In addition to the previous law making it a felony for an ex-felon to possess a firearm, it is now a felony to possess a firearm if one is an illegal alien, addicted to a controlled substance, legally insane, a fugitive from justice or under 18. It is also a felony to knowingly sell or transfer a gun into the hands of one of those people, to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, to obliterate the serial number on a firearm or have a firearm without a serial number.
All of these laws, along with the state law allowing criminal penalties to be enhanced if a deadly weapon was used in the commission of a crime, prevent gun violence and unauthorized use of firearms better then any of the laws proposed by the Brady campaign, law enforcement and gun store owners said.
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