On Feb. 20 of this year, a 3 year old toddler found his father's loaded gun in the glove compartment of the family vehicle and fired off a shot that hit his mother in the back of her head. Fortunately, the woman survived. Last year, 3 year old Jonathan Kaufman of Lenawee County found a loaded handgun stored in a closet in his home and unintentionally shot himself in the head and died. A google search turns up many such incidents here in Michigan and other states.
In the first case I mentioned, Chief Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker declined to file charges because he said no laws were broken and that is what happens in almost all of these cases. They are determined to be "tragic accidents" and no one is held accountable.
The NRA itself stresses 3 basic gun safety rules and they are:
1.Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
2.Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
3.Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
Simple rules, that if followed, would have prevented many of the needless tragedies that have occurred and will continue to occur.
I would like you to consider proposing and working to enact legislation that would make a gun owner responsible for guns that he or she owns at all times, even if some other person is handling it, and that the owner be charged with a misdemeanor if any of the 3 rules listed above are violated and if an innocent is injured or killed because of not following any of the 3 rules, the owner be charged with a felony.
I believe the 3rd rule could be expanded to to say that the only time a gun can legally be loaded is when it is the owner's immediate possession for the purpose of training, self defense, target shooting, hunting or other legal activity or another person's, whom the owner has given written or verbal permission to have the gun, immediate possession for the same purposes. Otherwise the gun must be unloaded or if kept loaded, be stored in an approved gun safe or equipped with an approved trigger lock.
I thank you for your time and do hope that you would give what I propose some serious consideration.
= new reply since forum marked as read