Safe Gun storage laws to protect children - not so fast!

[Zoogster]

It was I believe the City of San Diego that passed a safe storage requirement sometime this year. California already has laws that make it a serious crime if a child accesses a firearm and misueses it.
In a press conference they made it clear the real reason for the push was officer safety when raiding or conducting searches or performing wellness checks of peoples homes.
They didn't like the danger imposed by peoples homes being their castles and preferred they be more raid ready.
If people have to keep their guns locked up the tactical units or even regular officers when entering the home have the added confidence of most guns being harder for the home owner to acquire fast enough to use, and also not having to deal with citizens in a situation with loaded firearms within ready reach while they are taking control of the home.
While also giving reason to arrest or sieze any guns they come across while in a home.

So at least some places the real desire for storage laws is so law enforcement gain an advantage over the home occupants.
Clearly this primarily targets average citizens, and not criminal gangsters that are typically prohibited anyways.
Preventing children or bad people from accessing them is the reason that gains the most traction though, and what they cited as the reason later on to pass it.

 

[Walkalong]

If you own firearms the responsible thing to do is own a gun safe. When I hear about people getting broken into and their guns stolen out of the closet I have zero sympathy for them. Not to mention some of those guns get into the wrong hands.

And that is totally irrelevant to the will a ban stop crazy people from entering gun free zones and killing people question. No, it won't, but they don't care, they just want to ban guns and right now AR 15s are an easy target. Before many younger THR members were involved in the gun control debate/fight the antis used the same tactics to go after "Saturday Night Specials".

If they get ARs it will be something new next time. What will it be? Deadly "Sniper" rifles? Handguns again? I don't know, all I know is it will be something, because they will never quit until they have them all. Time has taught us that, they used to deny it, but for some time now they have openly said they want them all.

They don't care about the children when it comes to gun control, it just makes good emotional press clippings.

 

[FlSwampRat]

I think the main point of the OP's post was that sometimes it's a good thing that a child has access to a gun.
When I was old enough to get my first cap pistol, a Mattel Fanner 50 with Shootin' Shells, we stopped on the way home from the toy store and I fired 6 greenie stickum caps at a target. Then Dad handed me his Colt Official Police .38 with one round in it. I fired that one round and got a real life lesson in the difference between a toy and a real firearm. He taught me gun safety, how to check if a gun was loaded or clear, all sorts of Dad lessons.

A hundred and fifty years ago, Mom was busy all day long with no dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, Instant Pots, etc to make her workload lighter. Dad was busting butt all day in the field because John Deere hadn't invented the tractor yet. It was usually the kids who shot for the dinner pot. They'd been taught from an early age how to handle firearms and how to not have accidents. Treating a gun as a deep dark secret is when there is an issue with a kid discovering a gun in the drawer or on the closet shelf IMHO. I do not believe children of 150 years ago were more mature than kids of today, assuming the kids of whom we speak were properly raised by their parents and not by the television.

 

[Basura Blanca]

It was I believe the City of San Diego that passed a safe storage requirement sometime this year. California already has laws that make it a serious crime if a child accesses a firearm and misueses it.
In a press conference they made it clear the real reason for the push was officer safety when raiding or conducting searches or performing wellness checks of peoples homes..

As part of the ordinance, there's a redundant (with the state) theft reporting edict too. That aspect of it was presented as a way to head off stolen guns ending up in the hands of criminals. Unfortunately, that's a direct result of us gun owners pushing that narrative (criminals don't buy guns, they steal them) for decades. They listened, and now here we are.

As for LE, etc doing wellness checks, the ordinance is vague but it's generally agreed that if your gun isn't locked up, it must be in your control, presumably on your body, at all times. That means that a person who's dedicated to having access to their gun at home will have no choice but to being armed in such encounters. Not the most logical law to meet the stated goal, but again, here we are and that's that.

 

[.308 Norma]

I do not believe children of 150 years ago were more mature than kids of today, assuming the kids of whom we speak were properly raised by their parents and not by the television.

Maybe, maybe not. But it's a cinch that the kids 150 years ago were not "raised by television."

 

[Jammersix]

The kids of 150 years ago were no more equipped to deal with life today than our kids are to deal with life 150 years ago. My kids don't need to know how to hook up a team of six.

 

[FlSwampRat]

My kids don't need to know how to hook up a team of six.

Doesn't mean they can't learn how.
Might get a job at Budweiser running the Clydesdales.

 

[P5 Guy]

Dad lessons.

Too few Dads these days.

 

[Jammersix]

Oh, they can. There's just no reason to, so I imagine they won't. And it shows that preparation for a previous century is not preparation for this century, and vice a versa.

 

[FlSwampRat]

And it shows that preparation for a previous century is not preparation for this century, and vice a versa.

The point wasn't comparing worldly abilities of non contemporary persons, it was to make a point of the maturity level and of what, with proper training, younger persons are capable. There is no reason why a child of today can't, with proper training, handle and use a firearm. Treating the possession and presence of a firearm in the home as a secret leads to the possibility of discovery and misuse with potential disastrous results.

 

[.308 Norma]

Treating the possession and presence of a firearm in the home as a secret leads to the possibility of discovery and misuse with potential disastrous results.

I completely agree with you. And maybe you're on to something even bigger. I'm not sure, can't prove it, but I suspect that 150 years ago the presence of a gun or two in the home wasn't all that mysterious, and therefore not all that interesting to the children in that home. Furthermore, I suspect that 150 years ago few homes had gun safes, much less computers with internet access where folks could argue on gun forums about whether or not they needed gun safes.
On the other hand, as I stated (jokingly) in my other post in this thread, 150 years ago people didn't have televisions in their homes either. Nowadays, children can turn on the television almost any time of the day or night and watch shows that glorify, yes glorify using guns to shoot and kill people. Or children today can play video games on their own computers where they pretend to shoot and kill people.
BTW, as I've said before, I'm 71. When I was a kid, there was a gun rack in my bedroom that held my .22 rifle from the time I was 10. Later on, when I was 12, there was a .410 shotgun on that rack, a .308 Winchester at 15, and a 12 gauge at 16. Mom and dad had a gun display case in the living room with their own rifles and shotguns in it. But I didn't pay much attention to any of the guns in our house until we were actually going hunting or shooting - they were there, but there was no "mystery" about them. Except for the .357 dad kept hidden in the top drawer of the dresser in his and mom's bedroom. I'm ashamed to say, I don't know how many times I held and fondled that gun when dad and mom weren't around.
In fact, years later when I got out of the service, a .357 revolver was the first gun I actually bought for myself. Shooting it without hearing protection quickly taught me it wasn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be when I was a kid.

 

[old lady new shooter]

150 years ago a gun was a TOOL. That's the difference.