[Vision2020] Saving Children From Guns

Sat Mar 23 09:46:56 PDT 2013

Gun safety is, perhaps, a place where a lot of people on this list could 
potentially agree on this debate (at least to some degree). I think 
using RFID chips to enable guns to fire is just asking for a mis-fire or 
non-fire of the gun just when you need it most, though.  If we want to 
child-proof anything, I'd suggest child-proofing gun cases.  I'd like to 
find some incentive to ensure that people are storing their guns 
properly, but the only things I can think of that would help is more 
safety training and laws that affect the gun owner if a death occurs as 
a result of a firearm discharging accidentally.  I'm open to suggestions.

I took a quick look at the statistics for gun accidents, since the 
article only describes them as having "new examples almost every day".  
According to the CDC, in 2010 (under "Nontransport accidents"), 
"Accidental discharge of firearms" accounted for 606 deaths.  I haven't 
found a breakdown by child/adult, but I'll keep looking.  The only other 
age-related statistic I have found so far is that there were 0 infant 
mortality deaths due to gun accidents.

In case you're curious, here is the number of deaths for each 
non-transport accident type, from the "2010 Mortality Multiple Cause 
Micro Data Files" PDF 
(http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/deaths_2010_release.pdf):

Falls 26,009
Accidental discharge of firearms     606
Accidental drowning                3,782
Accidental exposure to fire        2,782
Accidental poisoning              33,041
Other unspecified                 16,678
Total                             82,898

Firearm accidents are the smallest number in that list, but that doesn't 
mean we couldn't do more to reduce that number.  What I'd like to know 
is why accidental poisoning is so high.  More than 54 times as many 
deaths by accidental poisoning as by accidental discharge of firearms.  
Looking into it, I see it consists mainly of drug causes (91%), 
including prescription pain killers, cocaine, and heroin at the top of 
the list.

Paul

On 03/23/2013 05:36 AM, Art Deco wrote:
> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> March 22, 2013
>
>
>   Saving Children From Guns
>
>
>             By JOE NOCERA
>
> For nearly two months, my assistant, Jennifer Mascia 
> <http://www.jennifermascia.com/>, and I have been publishing a daily 
> blog <http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/category/gun-report/> in which 
> we aggregate articles about shootings from the previous day. Of all 
> the stories we link to, the ones I find hardest to read are those 
> about young children who accidentally shoot themselves or another 
> child. They just break my heart. Yet Jennifer and I find new examples 
> almost every day 
> <https://www.google.com/search?q=child+shoots&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=child+shoots&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=xgX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&psj=1&ei=m-xMUYWkAdSp4AOFzYDYCg&ved=0CA0Q_AUoBA&fp=1&biw=1730&bih=774&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b&sei=KPZMUeOdKafE4APM9IHgCw>. 
>
>
> Partly, I react by thinking, "How can anyone be so stupid as to leave 
> a loaded gun within reach of a small child?" But I also have another 
> reaction. In 1970, Congress passed a law that resulted in 
> childproofing medicine bottles. The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
> regulates the paint used in children's toys. State laws mandate that 
> young children be required to use car seats.
>
> So why can't we childproof guns? In an age of technological wizardry 
> --- not to mention a time of deep sensitivity to the welfare of 
> children --- why can't we come up with a technology that would keep a 
> gun from going off when it is being held by a child? Or, for that 
> matter, by a thief using a stolen gun? Or an angry teenager who is 
> plotting to use his parents' arsenal to wreak havoc in a mall?
>
> It turns out --- why is this not a surprise? --- that such 
> technologies already exist. A German company, Armartix, will soon be 
> marketing a pistol that uses radio frequencies 
> <http://www.gizmag.com/armatrix-wristwatch-safety-system-for-handguns/14044/> 
> that prevent a gun from being used by anyone except its owner. At the 
> New Jersey Institute of Technology, the senior vice president for 
> research and development, Donald Sebastian, has long spearheaded an 
> effort to develop biometrics for "gun personalization," as it's 
> called. Guns employing this technology fire only when they recognize 
> the hand of the owner. There are others who have invented similar 
> technologies.
>
> Why aren't these lifesaving technologies 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-shuster/smart-gun-technology_b_2324978.html> 
> in widespread use? No surprise here, either: The usual irrational 
> opposition from the National Rifle Association and gun absolutists, 
> who claim, absurdly, that a gun that only can be fired by its owner 
> somehow violates the Second Amendment. Pro-gun bloggers were furious 
> when they saw James Bond, in "Skyfall," proudly showing off his new 
> biometrically protected weapon 
> <http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/11/skyfall_someone_should_make_james_bond_s_biometric_walther_ppk_s_gun.html>. 
> They were convinced it was a Hollywood plot to undermine their rights.
>
> Yet there is reason for at least some hope that the day when these 
> technologies are in widespread use will soon be here. Last week, there 
> were two important meetings about gun personalization technology. On 
> March 13, in Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. met with 
> several dozen advocates, including Sebastian and Stephen Teret, the 
> co-director of the Center for Law and the Public Health at Johns 
> Hopkins University. The purpose of the meeting was to get Holder up to 
> speed on the technologies so he could make recommendations to 
> President Obama.
>
> The following day, in San Francisco, Sandy Hook Promise 
> <http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/>, an organization founded by 
> citizens of Newtown, Conn., publicly launched 
> <http://newtownbee.com/news/news/0001/11/30/sandy-hook-promise-launches-innovation-initiative/10397> 
> its "innovation initiative" in collaboration with some Silicon Valley 
> venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. One of the leaders in the 
> effort is the venture capitalist Ron Conway, who coincidentally threw 
> a Christmas party on the day of the Newtown massacre. Gabrielle 
> Giffords was among those who attended. Like so many others, Conway 
> decided he had to do something about guns after Newtown.
>
> The innovation initiative, which will make grants, and even award 
> prize money for good ideas, includes an emphasis on gun 
> personalization technology. A member of the group, Alan Boinus 
> <http://www.lagunabeachindependent.com/2012/07/26/guest-column-mirror-america/>, 
> who applied for a patent on a biometric technology back in 1994, has 
> founded a company, Allied Biometrics, that is devoted to 
> commercializing biometric gun technology. He has already begun a 
> collaboration with Sebastian in New Jersey.
>
> In classic Silicon Valley fashion, Boinus told me that the government 
> has been hopeless, and that innovation and the market itself would 
> solve the problem. "The market will prove this out," he said. "People 
> want to be responsible. People want safety."
>
> I agree with him that Congress has been hopeless and then some, unable 
> to even work up the courage 
> <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/03/19/feinstein-assault-weapons-ban-reid-senate-bill/2000119/> 
> to vote on an assault weapons ban for fear of offending gun owners. 
> But I'm not convinced that the market alone can create mass acceptance 
> of this technology. It took years, after all, for Congress to overcome 
> the car industry's resistance to air bags, ultimately requiring a law 
> that made air bags mandatory.
>
> Thousands of lives 
> <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html> 
> could be saved each year if gun personalization technology became the 
> law of the land. In mid-April, Representative John Tierney, a 
> Massachusetts Democrat, plans to introduce a House bill requiring that 
> all guns include personalization technology within two years.
>
> Congress once cared enough about the safety of its citizens to pass 
> laws about air bags and childproof bottles. We'll soon find out if it 
> still cares enough about the safety of its constituents to make 
> childproofing guns the law of the land. It should.
>
>
>
> -- 
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com <mailto:art.deco.studios at gmail.com>
>
>
>
>
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