U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Gun sales are way up, in Pennsylvania and across the country. And many are first-time owners,” The Philadelphia Inquirer notes in a “Philly Tips” column. “Here’s what you need to know about gun safety.”
Gun owners can be forgiven if that assertion causes their antennae to go up. The mainstream press, what I call the DSM (Duranty/Streicher Media), has not exactly been supportive of the right to keep and bear arms. Plus, we have seen too often how the term “commonsense gun safety laws” is contorted by gun-grabbers (with little actual knowledge of firearms and shooting) to mean more infringements that won’t do a thing to stop evil people from doing evil things and stupid/lazy people from doing stupid/lazy things.
So, the initial questions ought to be: Who are the experts? What are their qualifications? Do they have an observable agenda?
Scott Charles is the first “authority” we meet, presented as “a gun violence educator and trauma outreach coordinator for Temple University Hospital.”
He says he’s a gun owner, but if he has any specialized training/credentialing that give him notable credibility as a gun safety expert, whoever wrote up his Temple Safety Net profile failed to list them. Instead, we find he has been “an at-risk youth specialist for the State Department of Education [and] assisted in the development of a statewide rite of passage program for young African American males.” He went on to get some degrees that have nothing to do with firearms and has been featured on network television, PBS, and a “documentary” about urban criminals using guns. He’s received some community awards, one of them being from CeaseFire PA, a group that used to admit it was about “gun control.”
So what are Charles’ “gun safety” qualifications? If you didn’t give him time to look it up on the internet, would he know who Jeff Cooper was and be able to explain his rules? Would he be able to tell you what to do about safety issues shooters may encounter at the range like misfires or hangfires? Could he even tell you what those are? Maybe he could. Maybe we just need to see a relevant CV. Maybe.
“As a gun owner and someone who sees the consequences of gun injury, this is something we should take seriously,” Charles pontificates. “We have a lot of novice, first-time gun owners taking that gun home where there are children, and the data we have says that firearm is most likely to be used to harm somebody in the home.”
So we see him adopting the gun-grabber talking point that guns in the home are more dangerous than not having them in the home. But he nonetheless says he has them in his home. Agenda much? Then you go to his Twitter page and his political predispositions make it all clear.
Our next “expert” source is Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown and a recitation of its propaganda about children and unsecured guns. Apparently, the Inquirer’s press release writer … sorry, reporter … couldn’t find an organization that actually trains gun owners (and trainers and police) in use and safety, so figured who better to approach than billionaire-funded citizen disarmament zealots?
To be fair, he also consulted ATF. That is fair, isn’t it?
The bottom line, the gun-grabbers demand government edicts to lock up your safety, taking the decision away from you. And to lock your ammunition up separately. That way, should you ever need to access your gun to defend against an intruder, no doubt he will be impressed with how thorough you are about mandatory “safety.” The problem, of course, is that it adds a couple of time-consuming steps that would make Joe Biden’s recommendations to either fire your shotgun blindly off the balcony or through your front door problematic.
Of course, there are situations where it makes perfect sense to lock guns up to prevent unauthorized access. No responsible gun owner argues otherwise. The point is each situation can be different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach, no matter what these “experts” tell us. And presuming that there is, and then mandating storage, has resulted in things like pitchfork murders, as opposed to responsible young people being able to protect themselves and others.
The fact remains, things like cable locks, when used by irresponsible idiots, can actually create a false sense of security which in turn results in risky practices like leaving guns lying around. It brings to mind the people who believe childproof medicine caps mean kids can’t take them off.
Two cautionary tales from years past come to mind.
The first was from Gambino crime family underboss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who said:
“Safety locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.”
The second was from another self-styled “gun safety” authority:
“Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence drops the ball in front of a roomful of reporters, while trying to prove the efficacy of Saf-T-Lok, a purportedly easy-to-use combination lock in the gun’s grip. Henigan fumbles and fails to unlock the gun in a well-lit room with no intruder at the door… Finally disengaging the safety, he apologizes, ‘Most people aren’t as klutzy as I am.’” -From “Lawyers, Guns and Money” by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard, Feb. 1, 1999
You have to wonder how he’d do with it in the dark, startled from sleep, fumbling frantically while his heart pounds, his hands shake, and an unknown someone draws closer…
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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