[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 19890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               BROAD SUPPORT FOR RESPONSIBLE GUN STORAGE

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, according to a report last year by the 
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, teenagers and children are 
involved in more than 10,000 accidental shootings in which close to 800 
people die each year. Further, about 1,500 children age 14 and under 
are treated in hospital emergency rooms for unintentional firearm 
injuries per year. About 38 percent of them have injuries severe enough 
to require hospitalization. We can do more to reduce the number of 
these tragedies, the vast majority of which could be prevented if safe 
gun storage techniques were more widely practiced.
  A study released Tuesday by researchers from the Center for Disease 
Control and Prevention, reportedly the largest of its kind ever carried 
out, analyzed the prevalence of firearms in homes and the storage 
practices of gun owners. Researchers analyzed survey results from more 
than 240,000 randomly selected households in all 50 States and the 
District of Colombia.
  While the rates of gun ownership and the storage practices vary 
widely from State to State, the CDC researchers found that nearly a 
third of households in the U.S. have firearms. According to the study, 
in 18 different States more than 10 percent of households contain 
loaded firearms. In one State, the number is higher than 19 percent. In 
addition, in 23 different States more than 5 percent of households keep 
firearms unlocked and loaded. The most startling statistic revealed by 
researchers is that 1.69 million children in the U.S. live in 
households where firearms are kept unlocked and loaded.
  Statistics like these should give us pause, especially when we 
consider the impact that safe gun storage practices can have on 
preventing accidental shootings and suicides by kids using guns. A 
study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical 
Association found that the risk of unintentional shooting or suicide by 
minors using a gun is reduced by as much as 61 percent when ammunition 
in the home is locked up. Simply storing ammunition separately from the 
gun reduces such occurrences by more than 50 percent.
  Recently, I joined with 69 of my colleagues in voting for an 
amendment offered by Senator Kohl that would require licensed dealers, 
manufacturers, and importers to include a safe gun storage or gun 
safety device with every handgun they sell. Hopefully Senator Kohl's 
amendment will become law.
  We can do more to help stop accidents involving children and guns. I 
urge my colleagues to join me in supporting commonsense gun storage 
requirements so that fewer families will have to endure the pain of 
losing a child or loved one because of a preventable tragedy involving 
a firearm.

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