Mar. 31 - Last Sunday, this paper ran an editorial that endorsed trigger-lock laws and passed on some Handgun Control Inc. propaganda. It included the claim that 30,000 people are killed by guns in the United States each year, a fact necessitating more gun control.
The problem with that argument is that number is made up of mostly suicides.
Now I know there's just nothing like a few gun-control laws to cheer everybody right up and lower the suicide rate. But unless a significant number of Americans really are committing suicide because they're despondent over the availability of firearms, it's hard to imagine an honest reason for the numbers to be padded that way.
But just in case Handgun Control Inc. has stumbled onto something, let's take a look.
The glorious gun-controlled Utopia of Japan has a suicide rate higher than the combined suicide and homicide rates of the United States. In fact, the suicide rate in Japan is double the total U.S. death rate from firearms of all kinds for all reasons, including homicide, suicide, accidental shootings and police shootings.
(Apparently Utopia's got some termites in the support columns.)
Either gun control is far more depressing than even the NRA thought, or there is no cause-and-effect relationship whatsoever between gun laws and suicide.
How often do you have to catch Handgun Control Inc. lying until it dawns on you that they're not reliable or honorable? (If you voted for Bill Clinton, ignore that question.)
But wouldn't safety locks still be a good idea even if the folks pushing them aren't honest? Well, maybe.
A safety device will be effective if it's well designed, if it's used, and if it doesn't create a false sense of security leading to greater carelessness.
In many cases, trigger locks increase the likelihood of an accidental discharge if the gun is dropped. There are other ways to secure a gun that are more effective, cheaper, and don't interfere as much with the gun's usefulness in an emergency. In other words, anyone conscientious enough to use a trigger lock doesn't need it, and anyone who isn't wouldn't use it. That probably explains why almost no one buys them voluntarily.
After 30 years in the construction industry, I can guarantee you that any safety device that interferes with the usefulness of a tool will be removed. If your job is cutting boards, it makes no sense to show up with a saw that doesn't cut, no matter how safe it is.
That's true of guns as well. If I owned a liquor store that had been robbed several times, there'd be a gun under the counter; having a trigger lock on that gun would be dumber than expecting the police to show up in the nick of time.
Twelve states have trigger-lock laws, and in 10 years the accidental shooting deaths of school age children in those states has dropped 24 percent. During the same time, however, the rate dropped 32 percent in the other states. After 10 years, on average, the states without such laws are significantly safer than the ones with the laws. Why not find out what's actually working, even if it doesn't (horror of horrors) involve bigger and more intrusive government? (I understand that big, intrusive government is a wonderful thing in its own right. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, cut some taxes, fire a few bureaucrats, and actually solve some problems. We can always go back to expanding the government after we get something done.)
Oh, and for those of you who just love that little analogy about aspirin bottles: it's a really bad example.
Accidental poisonings by aspirin and aspirin substitutes have increased by about 3,000 a year nationwide since the government mandated those safety caps. But I guess if you're looking for proof that the government can make our personal decisions for us better than we can, a really bad example is probably as good as it gets.
Paul Kelly is a Boulder carpenter and former vicechair of the Boulder County Democratic Party.
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Last updated : 03 April 2000