[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 14442]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             TRIGGER LOCKS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, safe storage and child access prevention 
laws are crucial steps in the effort to reduce the occurrence of 
accidental shootings and suicides involving guns. Such tragedies have 
claimed the lives of thousands of young people and destroyed thousands 
of families, even though many of these occurrences could have been 
prevented by commonsense legislation.
  A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association 
found that the application of responsible gun storage measures can 
significantly reduce the risk of unintentional shooting or suicide by 
minors using a gun. According to the study, when ammunition in the home 
is locked up, the risk of such injuries is reduced by 61 percent. 
Simply storing ammunition separately from the gun reduces such 
occurrences by more than 50 percent.
  According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, teenagers 
and children are involved in more than 10,000 accidental shootings in 
which nearly 800 people die each year. Reducing the number of 
accidental shootings involving children and teenagers requires that 
commonsense gun storage measures be adopted.
  In 2005, Congress passed a law, which the President signed, requiring 
that all handguns sold by a dealer come with a child-safety lock. It 
was a clear bipartisan effort to protect the youth of this country from 
gun violence. Unfortunately, last month the House of Representatives 
adopted legislation to repeal effective enforcement of this requirement 
as part of its Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act. The Senate has not yet considered its version of 
the appropriations bill.
  Sarah Brady, wife of Jim Brady, who was shot in the attempted 
assassination of President Reagan, responded to last month's vote by 
saying:

       In a nation where gun violence takes such an enormous toll, 
     this vote is disturbingly backwards. Every year more than 
     30,000 Americans are killed by guns, including more than 
     2,800 young people. Every day, we lose a classroom of 
     children to gun violence. So many health advocates, law 
     enforcement officials, and others have urged Americans to 
     more safely secure and store guns. But in the millions of 
     American homes where children and firearms are present, 40 
     percent had at least one unlocked firearm.

  While the problems of youth suicide and accidental shooting clearly 
cannot be completely legislated away, trigger locks and other sensible 
gun safety measures can help limit access to firearms by children, and 
there can be no doubt that reducing access by our kids to firearms can 
save many lives.

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