First published: Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Trigger locks on guns unneeded in state

Is the public being hoaxed on the subject of gun control? Statistically, based on the figures of accidental gun deaths compared to deaths from car accidents and deaths from drownings, it certainly sounds like it.

The most recent figures compiled by the National Safety Council show that in 1998 there were 900 accidental gun deaths, nationwide, the lowest in 25 years. Automobile accident fatalities that year totaled 41,200. Drownings killed 4,100 people.

In New York state, accidental firearms fatalities have declined 64 percent since 1987. That prompts the question — are gun locks as necessary as Gov. Pataki says? At the last count, New York reported 43 firearms fatalities. Consider the state’s large size and number of people, and number of guns here, trigger locks would seem an unneeded superfluity.

FRED LUKS

Livingston