Liz,
First, I want to express my thanks to you for your response and actual dialog. Even if we never end up seeing eye to eye on this, the fact that you actually bothered to ask for a suggestion instead of sending me a cut and paste response that completely ignores my concerns speaks volumes to me.
To address your question, you asked me for my thoughts on how we can reduce the number of accidental shootings each year, and I have taken what I believe to be a problem solving approach to offer a solution.
First, let's define the problem.
I did some research on the problem (1) and found that there were an average of 57.5 firearm deaths per year in Washington from 1999-2004, totaling 287. These tragic deaths were largely concentrated in the 15-19 year old age group as you can see if you use the CDC reporting tool.
The above report was run using the data for 0-19 year olds on all firearm related deaths. If you filter only on unintentional deaths, the number drops significantly (Homicide deaths account for 112 of those deaths, while suicides account for 149 of those deaths). The conclusion that I have drawn from this data is that when we refer to accidental shootings, the actual number is far smaller than some suggest, at a total of 17 accidental shootings over 5 years. Ultimately, that means there are 3.4 accidental shootings per year that result in the death of children.
While this is certainly tragic, the problem is clearly overstated to begin with.
The next problem with this legislation is that it assumes the accidental firearms related deaths were perpetrated by children. The CDC offers no statistics (at least, that I could find) on the age group of those who actually committed these accidental killings.
As a result, we have no conclusive evidence that I can find that any significant percentage of these killings were committed by a child. However, for the sake of discussion and common sense, I will admit that it's very likely that at least some of them were, simply because we all hear the occasional tragic story in the news about the little boy who killed his friend by playing with dad's .22 rifle or other such stories.
This bill attempts to give law enforcement the opportunity to bring irresponsible parents to justice by charging them with reckless endangerment or other such crimes if they do not store their firearms in a 'safe' manner. However, it will not prevent deaths, simply because enforcement of this bill from a prevention stance would require police to inspect firearm owners’ homes on a regular basis. I hope it's safe to say that this is a solution that none of us want!
I also submit that a firearms-owning parent who lacked the responsibility to teach their children the rules of firearms safety and instill a respect in their children for firearms will also be irresponsible enough to not secure their firearms anyway, whether there is a law or not, especially as it is unenforceable until after a tragic event occurs.
Now that I have made my case for why this bill will not lower firearms related deaths, I do have a potential solution for you to consider.
Why not teach firearms safety in schools? I was lucky enough personally that my father instilled a deep respect for firearms when I was 5 with a trip to the woods, a stern lecture on firearms safety, a lesson on how guns work, and an object lesson both in what a bullet does to its target, and also what it's like to shoot one. Obviously it doesn't need to be a trip to the woods in school, but a firearms safety class is hardly a bad idea nonetheless. I think it's pragmatic to assume that some parents will object to their children participating in such a class, and that's their choice, but such parents probably don't own firearms, so it's really not an issue.
In summary, instead of passing a law that can't be enforced in a preventative fashion with the intention of lowering accidental deaths, let's pass legislation that doesn't tell people what to do in their homes and instead gives them options that allow their children to receive a proper education in firearms safety, and build the deep respect for firearms that precludes the kind of horseplay that results in children dying.
I do apologize for making this so long, but I truly appreciate and thank you for actually considering the suggestions of your constituents.
Best regards,
Andrew Brown
(1)
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html
[font="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif"]
From: "Loomis, Rep. Liz" <------------removed to stop spam>
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 3:54 PM
To: removed to stop spam
Subject: RE: I am against HB 1014[/font]
Mr. Brown,
Thanks for contacting my office. How do you suggest we cut down on the
number of accidental shootings each year? I would like to know your
thoughts.
Thank you for contacting my office,
LIZ LOOMIS
State Representative
44th Legislative District
PO Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600
(360) 786-7892
