A Michigan dad was charged with violating the state's safe gun storage law after his son allegedly got a hold of his firearm and shot himself, investigators said.
  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    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.

    • Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 months ago

      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

        • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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          7 months ago

          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.

          • MysticDaedra@fedia.io
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            7 months ago

            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.

            • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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              7 months ago

              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.

        • Crashumbc@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          7 months ago

          Good? You’re more likely to win the lottery then to actually need a gun for self/home defense…

          And it’s even MORE likely that the gun will be used to kill someone, either accidentally or murder.

    • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s pretty difficult to write effective laws when conservatives fight tooth and nail against any legislation that tries to actually help people

      • Dem Bosain@midwest.socialEnglish
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        7 months ago

        The ONLY reason this is a law is because Michigan Democrats have the trifecta of House, Senate, and Governorship. Republicans are very salty about having to store their guns safely.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    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.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    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.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          7 months ago

          So what everyone was keeping their guns on the shelf by the front door prior to this were they?

          • Sizzler@slrpnk.net
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            7 months ago

            Have you seen some of the setups for quick firearm retrieval? There’s one where you basically hit your beds headboard and a shotgun falls out. I would be killing in my dreams.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        I mean on its own. Like, this guy has already shown he’s a fucking idiot, what can we do to keep society safe from him before he does something irresponsible and gets a child killed?

    • mkhopper@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      But if it’s locked up, it takes too much work when you want to wave it around feeling badass.

    • FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
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      7 months ago

      Knowing you are the reason your kid is dead. Or maimed. Christ how do you live with that?

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I like guns, I don’t currently own any, that will probably change at some point in my life, but one of the several reasons I don’t have one is because I don’t have any space in my house that I’d want taken up by a gun safe.

      I don’t even have kids and I don’t plan on having any, I can count the amount of times there has been a child in my house on one hand with fingers to spare, and if I have it my way my count will never reach my other hand, and the only time those children were out of an adult’s immediate supervision while they were here was when they were in the bathroom, but I can’t guarantee that will always be the case, I don’t know what friends or relatives may bring kids over and what may happen that will distract us from what they’re doing.

      I live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but break-ins happen, and I don’t want my guns out on the streets, so not only will my safe be merely child-proof, it’s also going to be securely bolted to the wall and/or floor, and it’s going to be hard to break into, and ideally hidden from sight. No one’s getting guns out of my house against my will without at least some time and power tools.

      Should my wife or I ever have a mental health crisis, I want to make sure that we have the means to secure those guns until we can get them out of the house by changing the combo or hiding the keys or whatever (and that would also be the end of guns in our house for good)

      Anyone who doesn’t think of these kinds of circumstances has no business owning a gun.