"Westchester to keep gun-storage law for now," Gerald McKinstry of LoHud.com tells us:
"The county law, enacted in 2000, requires owners to store a gun with a safety lock or in a safe-storage depository."
Gun advocates point out "recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings determined that storing a gun could make it harder for people to defend themselves in their homes..."
Westchester pols, who presume to both know better and possess the "authoritah" to compel others to respect, disagree:
Legislator Martin Rogowsky says they might very well pass the same edicts today. And Legislator Tom Abinanti "think[s] our statute is fine. It is a balance between the rights of gun owners and the rights of society to ensure that guns are stored responsibly."
Left undetermined are how Rogowky and Abinati would perform if they needed to access a disabled gun to save their own lives. Would they do as well as, say, this guy?
"Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence drops the ball in front of a roomful of reporters, while trying to prove the efficacy of Saf-T-Lok, a purportedly easy-to-use combination lock in the gun's grip. Henigan fumbles and fails to unlock the gun in a well-lit room with no intruder at the door... Finally disengaging the safety, he apologizes, 'Most people aren't as klutzy as I am.'"
"-From 'Lawyers, Guns and Money' by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard, Feb. 1, 1999"
Or this guy?
"A television commercial produced by the NRA took advantage of Maryland Governor Parris Glendening's two minutes of fumbling while he tried to demonstrate to reporters the ease of using the locking device...The governor said later he should have been trained in the proper use of the locking device before he took it before a news conference."
And keep in mind--in both these flubbed propaganda events, the anti-gun "klutzes" in question did not have a predator with murder on his mind charging them or brandishing a non-disabled weapon of his own.
That's not to say there isn't a place for locks and other options, particularly if multiple firearms are stored--but there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone and every situation. Sure, safes can help prevent unauthorized access and theft. Lock boxes can provide an additional security barrier and a quick level of access practiced owners may feel comfortable with.
The point is, it's our decision to make, not some presumptuous, self-perceived ruler's.
Because even if a lock only adds two seconds to your ability to defend yourself, a lot can happen in that time--and a politician mandating that we must yield a head start advantage to a home invader should tell us all we need to know about his competence and his character.
From Armed & Female by Paxton Quigley:
"Again, I learned from Massad Ayoob what has become known throughout the self-defense industry as the Tueller Drill. To our amazement, everyone in our class demonstrated that any person, no matter his age or physical condition, can cover twenty-one feet from a standing start and plunge a knife into a target in an average of 1.5 seconds..."
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A line in the sand
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership wants to know what yours is.
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Gun advocates predict Adams’ initiative will fail
Here's more on Oregon Firearms Federation's response to the anti-gun efforts of "a disgraced mayor" they call "a self-admitted liar" and a "sorry, freedom-hating loser."
Hell of a name this Sam Adams character is dishonoring...
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Comments
And just what part of the constitutional powers does mandating a lock on our "arms" come under anyways, is that another for the Commerce Clause?
In the movie "Rollerball" the powers that be were in the habit of deleting any history they found troublesome or inconvenient.
A few years ago in California a girl of around 12 years old (if memory serves) while babysitting her younger siblings had to run to a neighbors house when an intruder broke in because her family's guns, which she was trained to use, were locked up per California law. Before she was able to get help her younger brother was killed with a pitchfork. You could perhaps make a case for lives saved by mandating secure storage, but who would count the lives lost? We know how the press, academia and the government supress data on defensive gun uses.
I spent about an hour trying to find the girl's story on the web with no results. Must have been inconvenient for someone.
Anon, Google 'Merced pitchfork murders'--the first hit will be an account by Richard Poe on Lew Rockwell.com. This is something I've written about here at Examiner--unfortunately, with the recent site "upgrade," the most relevant article has not yet migrated.
Thanks, David. The important point is to put it in politicians faces that they may save one life by mandating secure storage while contributing to the death of someone else. Or perhaps more than one someone else. Facing the reality of unintended consequences has never been the strong suit of the "welljustpassalaw" crowd. One need look no farther than Chicago's mayor claiming his gun ban saved lives. Well, perhaps it did. But which honest broker is going to total up the lives it cost and decide if Chicago's surviving citizens are better off having it? What is needed is that these "gun control trick of the week" proponents be made to prove, in the words of the FDA, that what they propose is both "safe and effective". Perhaps a "strict scrutiny" outcome from one of the follow up cases coming after McDonald will do that.
Properly storing your firearms is a sacrosanct trust between the firearms owner, and the general public. I do not need a law telling me what common sense dictates. Similarly, God for bid, if a criminal decides that today is a good day to die - it will be my duty to arrange a swift and accurate meeting with St. Peter. Thus, saving the county and the state millions in costs, and saving the next victim the horror of having to face a hardened criminal willing to kill or rape their wife or their daughter, these days even their sons.
Safe storage...... Storage for your right to self defense and Constitutional rights.
How I store a gun in my own bedroom is my own business. I don't give 'hoot in Hell' what any government says.
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