Gun safety

There are two sorts of compromises that might eventually emerge in the battle over gun control. One, a pragmatic compromise, may already be in evidence. Many people on both sides of the issue would be willing to live with the current gun laws plus perhaps some enhancements to gun safety such as more comprehensive background checks and requirements for gun locks and safe gun storage. 

Because this is the position that seems to be prevalent in the various appeals circuits, the usual result in such cases is to apply the lower rational basis test to state firearms laws, as was done in the New Jersey case. In most cases involving assault weapons or gun safety it is likely the courts will find that the state did have a rational basis in enacting the law. 

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Gun Violence Gun Safety National State Resource Guide. Central Maine Medical Center. Available online. URL http //www.cmmc.org/ gunsafety.htm. Downloaded on July 7, 2004. Provides contact information and links to numerous national organizations related to gun safety and gun violence, plus state organizations in Maine. 

Works in this section advocate the control or prohibition of firearms based on a variety of arguments. Note that most pro-gun control books deal more specifically with gun crime and gun safety and thus will be found in those categories. 

Douglass, Linda. Where Criminals Get Their Guns So Few Dealers Supply So Many Weapons Used in Crimes. ABC News.com. Available online. URL http //abcnews.go.eom/sections/wnt/CloserLook/gun sales040112.html. Downloaded on July 7, 2004. A surprising fact is that more than half of the firearms traced in crimes come from about 1 percent of the nation s gun stores. A new study by Americans for Gun Safety found that federal agents seldom audit, let alone prosecute, these gun stores. 

Hammer, Marion P. NRA s Friendly Face Draws Hateful Fire. American Rifleman, vol. 146, February 1998, pp. lOff. Complains that Josh Sugar-mann s Violence Policy Center unfairly attacks the NRA s Eddie Eagle gun safety program because he does not want gun safety but rather the complete banning of firearms. 

Talk to Your Patients About Gun Safety. American Medical News, November 9, 1998, p. 19(1). Urges doctors to discuss gun safety issues with their patients. The AMA has a new publication, Physician Firearm Safety Guide, which can be helpful. 

National Surveys. New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, 1998, pp. 813-818. Reports surveys showing high public support for requiring various gun safety devices including support for childproofing (88 percent), personalization (71 percent), magazine safeties (82 percent), and loaded chamber indicators (73 percent). 

Looking just at accidental deaths from firearms, one can see a steep decrease from about 1970 to 1990, then a leveling, followed by a more gradual decrease in the late 1990s. Depending on where one stands, this decline can either be attributed to increased adoption of gun safety laws or used as an argument that more such laws are unnecessary. 

Never bypass or disable nail gun safety featvaes. 

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