This Is NOT A Gun Control Thread!!

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It isn't a matter of rights. It is a matter of one industry, just like the auto industry drug it's feet, and tobacco lied about it's products, and oil was forced to remove lead from gas. It isn't about denying responsible people. It is about one industry putting profits over public safety. Same as any other industry.

It isn't enough to blame the user. Laws forcing owners to prove they are locking up their firearms is a start. But if you have a flooded market, those laws, while well intended, wont stop the flooded market that makes things like that far too common.

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.

No.

Boru

You know what, Brian?  That was a stupid response on my part, and you deserve a better answer.  Here it is.

There is something on the close order of 400 million privately owned firearms in the US.  Let's imagine there's a billion. If each and every one of those firearms was secured in a safe and responsible manner, the number of accidental firearms death would drop like a paralyzed falcon.  Now let's imagine there are only 10 000 firearms in civilian hands, but no one secures them - they're left out on night tables, on the dashboards of unlocked cars and within the reach of unsupervised children.  In that situation, it's almost a dead cert that the number of accidental gun deaths will increase, and probably dramatically. So it's clearly not a flooded market issue.

I also don't think it's a gun industry issue.  You can't really hold an industry accountable for the misuse of its product by consumers.  Most of us have a bottle of chlorine bleach (or a similar nasty chemical) in our homes. If I use it to wash my clothes, clean my patio and so forth, all well and good. If I use it as a cocktail mix at a party and twelve people die, how is that the bleach manufacturer's fault? Similarly, how is it a case of the firearms industry putting profit ahead of public safety if people refuse to secure their guns?

It HAS to come down to responsible use and storage of firearms by the end user.  

Boru