Jesus fucking Christ…
Investigators said the boy used a chair to access the handgun which was “unsafely” and insecurely stored on top of a kitchen cabinet.
The kid was eight years old and he put the gun where parents unsuccessfully put the fucking cookie jar.
I try not to read articles like this because they just make me sick and I regret reading this one.
I generally try not to read them either. I have elementary age kids. Before I had kids I owned a handgun and would go to the range but when the kids came along the gun had to go. There’s no level of risk other than zero that’s acceptable to me in this regard.
Amen to that, the best risk mitigation is to remove the risk! Completely agree
Nichols was not permitted to own a firearm due to a previous drug-related conviction, according to police.
Sometimes I’m disappointed that being this much of a fucking idiot isn’t a crime.
Knowing you are the reason someone is dead, fuck. Be adult and store your weapons properly.
But if it’s locked up, it takes too much work when you want to wave it around feeling badass.
I’m all about storage laws. Damn near every gun law Democrats come up with is ineffective at best, backfires at worst. I could go on and on.
But I see no 2A violation, no chance of a court kicking it back, no arguments of any sort regarding storage laws when a minor is in the home.
It’s pretty difficult to write effective laws when conservatives fight tooth and nail against any legislation that tries to actually help people
The article links to the recently passed laws which address gun storage while minors are present:
Gun owners who live with minors who could access their firearms will now be required to store the firearm in a locked box or container or lock the firearm with a locking device that renders it inoperable by any individual other than the owner or an authorized user, according to the legislation
RIP, there goes home defense.
You could probably argue that keeping it under your pillow or on your nightstand while you’re sleeping or carrying it with you around the house is still acceptable since it’s “in use”. In the latter example, you’re literally carrying it with you, and in the former example it’s within arms reach at all times.
That said, should you have an unsecured gun in a house with a child? Absolutely not. They could sneak into your room while you’re sleeping and easily get the gun if it’s on the nightstand.
Besides, I’d expect most gun safes worth buying would be able to be quickly opened in case of an emergency. You have a decent amount of time between someone throwing a brick through a window and them being in your room. This isn’t Hotline Miami. They can’t see through your walls and aren’t going to intentionally make a beeline for you with a golf club.
Any gun safe capable of being opened quickly by an authorized user would be able to be opened just as quickly by an unauthorized user, aka a child.
I agree with your assertion though, that keeping a gun handy in the presence of an adult is distinctly different from keeping a gun unsecured and not in the possession of an adult. Good point.
My phone has a 4-digit pin code. While not super secure, I’m able to unlock it in anywhere from <1s to 2-3s, depending on if my fingers are cold and if I’m distracted. At worst, it might take me 7-8sec if I’m high stress (I think that’s about how long it took me to unlock my phone after I had a wreck, and that was with my arms shaking so badly from adrenaline that I couldn’t hold the phone to my ear). On a gun safe, that’d still give me a lot of time to open the door, grab my gun, load it, and find a safe place to hide.
Now, 4 digit pins aren’t super secure, especially if there’s no limit to failed inputs; a kid could probably go through all 9,999 potential combinations in an afternoon. However, if you increase that to 6 digits, you now have up to 999,999 combinations a child has to go through; yet the combination is still easily rememberable and the time to open the safe has probably barely increased.
deleted by creator
