We yield to common sense on car laws but we're reckless when it comes to children and guns

The Brady camp is cited as a national statistic. Has hell froze over?



http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/op_commentaries/article/0,2565,ALBQ_19866_4527659,00.html

By Bill Jordan
March 9, 2006

The national statistics are out, and once again New Mexico has failed its
children.

Our state earned a solid F from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
because of our unwillingness to protect children from handguns.

This report comes at a particularly tragic time here, with accidental
shootings involving children a recent and painful memory. The families of
those children have our sympathy and compassion, but more so, they deserve
our pledge to work toward preventing such a tragedy from ever tearing a
family apart again.

We do not fail to protect our children in every regard in New Mexico, and we
need not fail on gun safety either.

Consider, for example, child safety seats. Every parent knows about the need
for child safety seats. It's common sense. We recognize that cars can be
deadly and that children deserve to be protected. So we passed laws that
require parents to use child safety seats and even specify the kind of seat
to be used when the child is an infant, a toddler and beyond.

We recognize, too, that guns can be deadly. It stands to reason, then, that
if you own guns and have children in the house, you would be required to
protect those children by keeping your guns locked up or installing child
safety locks. Not in New Mexico.

New Mexico has, essentially, no gun safety laws. We do not require that
handguns meet basic safety standards, such as having child-safety locks or
built-in personalized locks to prevent use by another person. Handguns do
not need indicators that show the chamber is loaded, or magazine safety
disconnects, both of which can prevent unintentional shootings. You need not
be licensed to buy a handgun or undergo any type of safety training, and the
sale of secondhand guns is completely unregulated.

While it is illegal for juveniles to own or buy firearms in New Mexico, it
is not illegal to buy or give a gun to a minor, regardless of whether that
minor is your child or someone else's. Handguns - even semiautomatic assault
weapons - can legally be sold or given to kids without parental permission
or notification.

Why do we protect our children from one potentially deadly weapon - moving
vehicles - but not from another?

Gun control is not a popular topic in political circles. Many gun proponents
equate gun control with a loss of liberty. In a sense they are right, but we
voluntarily cede many potential freedoms - the freedom to drive recklessly
and at high speeds through a school zone, for example - if exercising that
freedom could result in the victimization of another person.

People who own cars and trucks but do not have small children don't
generally complain about how child safety seat laws impinge on their
freedoms. They're not required to have car seats for children. Likewise, we
do not need to require people who own guns but do not have children to
install child safety locks. Nor do we necessarily need to punish grieving
parents for accidental deaths.

But we do need to send a message that child safety locks are every bit as
important as child safety seats. The only way to send that message in a form
that everyone understands is to have legal consequences.

Another argument against child safety locks is the expense. The same
argument was posed when states were passing car-seat laws. The truth is,
child-safety locks cost as little as $5 - significantly less than the
average car seat. Rare is the parent who places the price or inconvenience
of a child car seat above the value of a child's safety.

Neither should we as a society place the price of a child gun-safety lock,
the inconvenience of using it or the fear of political reprisal above the
value of our smallest and most vulnerable residents.

Jordan is deputy director for policy for New Mexico Voices for Children


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