WE COULD PASS LAWS STOPPING ACCIDENTAL DEATHS OF CHILDREN BUT WON'T

Today's lead story in the New York Times, "Children and Guns:  The Hidden Toll," will bring tears to the eyes of anyone who is fully human.  The story reports, in vivid heart wrenching detail,  stories of murdered children.  The Times reviewed hundreds of firearms deaths of children and found that accidental shootings occurred twice as often as the records indicate.  In eight states where the records were available there were 259 accidental firearm deaths of children under 15 but only half were classified as accidental deaths by state authorities.   (These are all innocent victims of shootings.)  As a result, scores of accidental killings are not reflected in the official statistics that have framed the debate over how to protect children from guns.  This allows the N.R.A. to downplay the importance of "safe storage" laws which it opposes and has successfully blocked in many states.

Too, the N.R.A. has been able stop the passage of "smart gun" technology laws that would stop anyone one but the actual gun owner from using the weapon, arguing that the problem--as it relates to the accidental shootings of children--is insignificant.  An important aspect of firearm accidents is that the vast majority of victims do not die.  There were 837 unintentional nonfatal firearm injuries among children 14 and under in 2011, the most recent year that data is available.  

In opposing safe storage laws, gun rights advocates argue that a majority of accidental shootings of children are committed by adults with criminal backgrounds.  That is not true.  Children were most often the shooters and the families involved came from all walks of life.

A "safe storage law" allows an adult to be prosecuted for not properly stopping a child from accessing a gun.  Only 18 states have these laws, and most are written in such a way as to be highly limited in application.  Recently, a  safe storage bill was introduced in the Ohio legislature that would prohibit storing a firearm in a residence or place readily accessible to a child.  The gun lobby stopped passage of the bill, as was the case this year in Louisiana when a similar measure was before its legislature.  The Times' article does not report any recent efforts to enact laws "child proofing" guns through "smart technology."  Colt and Smith & Wesson experienced  a backlash against their own smart-gun programs which manifested itself in the form of boycotts by gun groups.  

Gun rights lobbyists have kept firearms and ammunition beyond the reach of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has the power to regulate other products that are dangerous to children.  One observer, quoted in the Times, stated "Why if we have childproof aspirin bottles, don't we have childproof guns?" 

It is true that guns have a deep hold on American culture.  In certain parts of the country, shooting at innocent animals can provide a deep bond between father and son (increasingly with daughters).

However, the data shows, that having one gun in the house increases the likelihood that a child will die, and the more guns the greater the odds.  That gun rights groups would oppose safe storage laws and child proof gun laws seems to be completely irrational.  These laws do not prevent the killing of innocent creatures and family bonding.  Safe storage laws, if properly written, do not prevent one from using a firearm for protection in one's home.

The male attraction to guns, the feeling of power and security (mostly illusion) of having them in one's possession, the thinking  that a weapon can be used to stop the tyranny of government (which  obviously has a monopoly on force and violence ), that one's manhood is threatened  if one can't possess a firearm, the desire to have a large phallic symbol (perhaps magnified by having a small penis), and whatever other factors are involved, are causing hundreds of accidental deaths of our children.

The National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups  prey upon the fears of gun owners that  the government will take their firearms away.  I don't know if the heads of these groups are social psychopaths, who don't have the consciences to care about the unnecessary deaths of our children,  or are  people who mistakenly believe that any government legislation to provide for their safety is a slippery slope to gun confiscation.  It doesn't matter.  Either way America's children are dying or are often severely injured.  They are sacrificial victims on the alter of a culture that worships guns.  For many Americans, guns are next to the Cross in religious significance.  The fevered attachment to guns is matched only by the love of Jesus Christ.  The values of faith are somehow intertwined with an almost spiritual belief in the sanctity of gun ownership.  I believe that Wayne LaPierre (and others at the top of the NRA) is either a very evil man, who uses American's almost religious love of firearms for personal wealth and power, or an ignorant fool who actually believes that he is right in opposing sane gun control laws.  In either case, he a murderer of children.