http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/metaksa/2001/metaksa02-15-01.htm

Gun-Grabbers Use the “Safety” Scam

FrontPageMagazine.com | February 15, 2001

THE CONSUMER PRODUCT Safety Commission (CPSC) – which has been barred by law
from regulating firearms for well over 20 years – has now turned its
attention to firearms’ safety locks calling them “firearms’ accessories.”
According to the Washington Post, they are calling “on the gun lock industry
to develop safety standards to make sure locks are tested before they are
sold to the public to ensure they work as advertised.”

Make Comments
View Comments
Printable Article
Email Article

Many gun owners fear that it’s just one more way to limit gun rights, under
the guise of “safety.”

Jeff Reh, general counsel for Beretta USA and the head of an industry
committee on firearms safety lock standards, summarized the feeling of the
industry and gun owners about CPSC’s involvement in gunlock standards when
he said, “If a new gun cannot be sold without a lock and then the standard
that is set for that lock is so rigid no lock can apply, it’s a backdoor
route to gun control [and could] end up being a de facto ban on gun sales.”

It wasn’t CPSC that brought the problem of problematic gun locks to the
attention of the public. It was a police department that was distributing
gun locks to the public through Project Homesafe, a program underwritten by
the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). NSSF’s program provides free
firearms safety locks to over 400,000 homes, in partnership with police
departments nationwide. Last October a Tennessee police department
discovered that the locks could be thwarted, causing NSSF to promptly issue
a free lock replacement notice to its police partners.

“Any gunlock is better than none, but gun owners should take extra
precautions to make sure their guns are extra secure,” said CPSC Chairman
Ann Brown. She also agreed with NSSF Project Homesafe coordinator Bill
Brassard that “there has never been a report of any injury or accident from
anyone who has gained unauthorized access to a gun” due to the failure of
Project Homesafe locks or any other gunlock.

Parents know that the motivated child can circumvent any mechanical safety
precautions. The notion of a firearm becoming completely “safe” because
someone has added a mechanical locking device is as fallacious and foolhardy
as believing one’s house is inviolate as a result of installing door and
window locks. An adult or even a determined child can break into a locked
house or circumvent any gunlock given time and opportunity.

True safety with firearms begins with education. The unparalleled leader in
firearms education and safety is the National Rifle Association (NRA). Its
firearms education program begins with a cadre of over 10,000 instructors
nationwide. These instructors teach children and adults safe and proper
firearms handling, as well as marksmanship. As a result, firearms accidents
have dropped consistently throughout the twentieth century. Almost twenty
years ago, NRA initiated their award-winning Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program
as an adjunct to its other firearms safety programs.

NRA’s Eddie Eagle program has been designed to teach young children that
they should STOP, DON’T TOUCH, LEAVE THE AREA, and TELL AN ADULT if they
find a firearm. It’s a program that has been taught by thousands of police
officers in countless schools, and is used by the FBI. Because it works, it
has been plagiarized and copied by countless safety programs.

Several years ago ABC News featured a videotaped segment in which two groups
of pre-school children played in a room where an unloaded gun had been
hidden. When the first group of children, who had taken the Eddie Eagle
course, discovered the gun, they didn’t touch the gun. Instead they alerted
each other and went in search of an adult to report their discovery. When
the second group, who had never been taught the Eddie Eagle safety message,
found the gun, the children began pointing it at each other while pulling
the trigger. The parents of the second group, who had been secretly watching
their children behind a two-way mirror, were horrified at their children’s
antics.

Yet, Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) ridicules the Eddie Eagle program in this
week’s press release touting its gun lock giveaway program, by saying, “This
is an organization that believes children can be left unattended with guns
so long as they’re told not to touch them.”

NRA has spent well over 10 million dollars teaching children its life-saving
Eddie Eagle message. The result has been fewer firearms accidents each
year — especially among children. Even so, the HCI continues to attack NRA
and the firearms industry under the pretext of promoting “safety.”

Tanya K. Metaksa is the former executive director of the National Rifle
Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. She is the author of Safe,
Not Sorry a self-protection manual, published in 1997. She has appeared on
numerous talk and interview shows such as “Crossfire,” the “Today” show,
“Nightline,” “This Week with David Brinkley” and the “McNeil-Lehrer Hour,”
among others.