Shortly before my daughter graduated from the police academy, her husband called me with a request.
Would I consider joining him in buying my daughter a personal semi-automatic handgun of a similar style to her department-issued weapon?
For me, it was a quandary. I’ve never owned a gun and believe the proliferation of guns in American homes contributes greatly to our nation’s skyrocketing gun-related deaths. It’s an issue I’ve written about extensively. But I was proud of my daughter and wanted to participate in her graduation gift. So I compromised. Yes, I told my son-in-law, my wife and I would help buy the gun, but I get to pick out the locked safety case.
This week, I thought about that gun, and that case, and my grandchildren in that house.
Twice in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, young children — one 2, another 4 — came across a gun in their home and fired it. Both children live in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ, one just south of Interstate 70 near O’Fallon Park, one just north of the interstate near Bellefontaine Cemetery. The 4-year-old found a gun and in the hand and face. He’s in critical condition.
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The 2-year-old , who was sleeping. Darrion Noble was 27. He died at the scene.
In Missouri this year, there have been by children, more than any state in the nation, according to a database compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for stronger gun safety laws.
Just a month ago it was two 17-year-olds in Festus who found a gun in a city park and were playing with it. One teen shot and killed his friend. Two months before that it was two 17-year-olds in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County when a similar incident played out.
When kids play with guns, bad things happen.
Historically, the nation’s top gun industry lobby — the National Rifle Association — has been quite proficient at deflecting blame from guns themselves for America’s unique gun violence problem.
There was “guns don’t kill people, people do,†followed by “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.â€
When a 2-year-old is the one carrying the gun, the blame game gets more complicated.
It’s a parent problem, some will say, and they’d be right.
I don’t worry about my grandchildren so much, not because of the case I bought my daughter for her firearm but because I know she’s a good mother and responsible gun owner.
But I still know that they are statistically more in danger of gun violence because there are guns in the house. It’s just math.
It should be no surprise that there are per 100,000 people in America than in any other developed country, because the nation also leads in guns per capita compared to those countries.
The comparisons — — aren’t even close. Like it or not, more guns leads to more deaths. That’s America’s statistical reality.
More than 2 million children in the U.S. live in homes with unsecured guns, according to . That’s why a majority of states in the U.S. have some version of a child access prevention law to encourage safe storage of guns in the home. Such laws require gun locks or safes, and provide legal authority to punish parents who store guns irresponsibly in a home, where children can gain access and do violence to themselves or others.
Missouri, of course, offers only of such a law, merely prohibiting somebody from “knowingly†providing a minor a firearm. In the Show-Me state, negligence is a defense to a dead kid.
Last year, state Rep. Stacey Newman, D-Richmond Heights, sponsored a bill in the Missouri House to strengthen the state’s child-access prevention law. Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, D-University City, carried a similar bill in the Senate. Neither bill received a hearing in a state where lawmakers are afraid to buck the NRA.
The NRA opposes such safety measures as unnecessary regulation. Meanwhile, it pitches its Eddie Eagle program as the solution. Missouri passed allowing the NRA-sponsored program to be taught in first grade.
Based on the state’s nation-leading number of accidental shootings involving children, it’s not working.
“Their Eddie Eagle is basically a modern day Joe Camel,†says Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a nonprofit gun advocacy organization affiliated with Everytown. “They’re marketing guns to kids while putting the onus on them — not adults — to stay safe.â€
One 2-year-old in ºüÀêÊÓƵ will now grow up without the father he killed because a loaded gun was left within his reach. When kids die in car wrecks, we improve car seats and require their use. When the purveyors of tobacco target young people, we respond with warnings and laws protecting our children.
Not with guns. Kids pick up guns and kill other kids, kill their parents, kill themselves, and we wash the blood into the sink, wipe our hands dry, and look the other way.