Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.73) on November 19, 2000 at 14:41:
"If it will save even one child's life" is the frequent refrain use to justify new gun control proposals. Unfortunately, public policy decision can't be that simple, because such a restriction will not only save lives; it would also cost lives.
For example, gun control advocates compare gun locks to "child-proof" safety caps on medicine bottles. It's a good comparison, because the safety caps increased accidental deaths, and gun locks would do the same.
According to research by Harvard's Kip Viscusi, the federal mandate about safety caps on medicine bottles made people more careless about storing medicine out of the reach of children. No cap can be really "child proof" (any bottle can be broken with a hammer), but careless parents left medicine bottles where children could get them, children defeated the "child-proof" caps and poisoning deaths increased.
Similarly, mandatory gun locks would encourage parents to stop being careful to keep loaded guns out of the reach of small children.
Even worse, many kinds of gun locks (such as locks that fit on the trigger), could cause accidents for both children and adults. A modern firearm won't discharge if it is dropped accidentally; but if the firearm has a trigger lock on it, the firearm often does discharge. That's why lock manufacturers warn consumers never to use the lock on a loaded gun. Mandatory use of locks could thus undo 50 years of improvements in firearms design that have helped reduce gun accidents by more than 75 percent.