Florida Group Calls On Parents To Keep Homes Gun-Free

TAMPA, FL -- Firearms deaths among children and youth are preventable, if parents would take guns out of their homes and if Congress would regulate America's out-of-control gun industry, Florida Consumer Action Network (FCAN) stated today.

For every week of the 1999 school year four Florida children and youth were killed by guns, according to FCAN's analysis of the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of the 137 Florida children and teens aged 19 and under killed by guns in 1999, 86 were killed in firearm homicides, 43 were killed in firearm suicides, four died in unintentional shootings, and four died in gun deaths of undetermined intent.

Guns are the weapons of choice killing Florida's children. More than half of all homicides and nearly six out of ten suicides of Florida youth involved guns in 1999. Between 1995 and 1999, Florida buried 850 children and youth due to gun violence.

Gun owners defend their ability to keep their families and homes safe. The problem for gun owners that are also parents is that their firearms are also at the disposal of their children. "It's naive to think that teenagers can't get past trigger locks and safes. Reality is trying to teach us that, if you're a parent, don't keep a gun in the house," says Darla Scaife, Firearms Project Director of Florida Consumer Action Network.

Pro-gun advocates point to programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle "gun safety" program as an effective way to reduce deaths and injuries. However, according to the July 2002 David and Lucille Packard Foundation report, "Children, Youth and Gun Violence," existing behavioral programs for parents do not go far enough to change children's behavior. The study found that children who have participated in "gun avoidance" training programs have been shown in experimental settings to find and play with guns at the same rates as children who have not received the training. Young children often lack the cognitive maturity these programs expect them to have, and adolescents are often susceptible to peer pressure, feelings of invulnerability and risk-taking behaviors.

At the national level, guns should be regulated for health and safety. Unlike virtually all other consumer products-from children's toys to jumbo jets, no federal agency has the authority to set safety standards for guns.

Federal health and safety regulation over guns and ammunition would reduce gun deaths and injuries among children by:

Issuing safety rules specifically designed to protect kids from firearm-related death and injury. Regulation would also enhance the ability to enforce restrictions on the purchase and possession of handguns by minors.

Requiring manufacturers to issue specific warnings regarding the risk of firearm suicide and homicide.

Educating the public about such risks.

Expanding authority to take action against corrupt guns dealers, so that guns now obtained illegally can be intercepted before they reach the hands of young people who often use them to commit suicide or homicide. Corrupt guns dealers--not individual straw purchasers--are the most significant source of illegally trafficked weapons according to research by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Incorporating simple safety devices, such as "magazine disconnects," which prevent a gun from firing once the magazine is removed. A common scenario involves children or teens that find guns and remove the ammunition magazine, believing the gun to be unloaded, then point it at playmates or siblings and pull the trigger. Although such incidents are unintentional, they are often prosecuted as homicides. "When the gun industry's products wreak havoc among our children, the gun lobby moves quickly to blame virtually everybody and everything but guns. It's unacceptable that toy guns are federally regulated for safety while real guns are not," stated Scaife.

Florida Consumer Action Network, www.fcan.org, is a non-partisan grassroots organization with more than 40,000 members statewide that is working to regulate guns for health and safety.

"Of the 137 Florida children and teens aged 19 and under killed by guns in 1999...."

.... in a state with a population of over 15 million people.
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".... 86 were killed in firearm homicides...."

The vast majority of which were due to teenage gang members and drug dealers fighting over territory. "Keeping guns out of the home" would have zero effect on this.
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".... 43 were killed in firearm suicides...."

Japan has total gun control, yet has twice our per capita suicide rate. The same is true in many other nations with strict gun control laws, their suidice rate being far higher than ours. This proves that if people really want to commit suicide, they will do so with or without guns. The availability of guns is completely irrelevant to suicide rates.
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".... four died in unintentional shootings...."

Four children accidentally killed by firearms in a state of over 15 million people. That is not excessive. I wonder how many of those were hunting accidents, or accidental shootings by police officers? How is this such a huge problem that it justifies attacking our most fundamental liberties as free citizens?
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".... and four died in gun deaths of undetermined intent."

Again, for a state with that large a population, this is a miniscule problem that should be addressed with education. Of course, the very people who decry the problem have fought tooth and nail to keep the NRA 'Eddie Eagle' gun saftey program out of public schools, claiming it doesn't work....

"Pro-gun advocates point to programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle "gun safety" program as an effective way to reduce deaths and injuries. However, according to the July 2002 David and Lucille Packard Foundation report, "Children, Youth and Gun Violence," existing behavioral programs for parents do not go far enough to change children's behavior."

Excuse me, but these liberals are saying that education doesn't work on kids? Aren't these the very same liberals who demand that we must have manditory sex education, because educating kids is the only thing that will work ??? A rather convenient double-standard. So is their agenda really safety, or is it anti-gun fascism ???
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"At the national level, guns should be regulated for health and safety. Unlike virtually all other consumer products-from children's toys to jumbo jets, no federal agency has the authority to set safety standards for guns."

Yes, Massachuttets has used that backdoor gun control method, and as a result, many manufacturers have ceased selling their firearms in that state. Thus, the gun banners have acheived their one true goal, restricting the availability of legal guns to law-abiding gun owners, under the false flag of 'gun safety'.
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"Expanding authority to take action against corrupt guns dealers, so that guns now obtained illegally can be intercepted before they reach the hands of young people who often use them to commit suicide or homicide. Corrupt guns dealers--not individual straw purchasers--are the most significant source of illegally trafficked weapons according to research by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."

You can read an excellent refutation to this BS claim by CLICKING HERE.
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"Incorporating simple safety devices, such as "magazine disconnects," which prevent a gun from firing once the magazine is removed."

And with a magazine disconnect, you lose the ability to shoot in the middle of a magazine change or if you lose your mag, which could cost you your life in a firefight. That kind of 'safety feature' I can do without, thank you very much.
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"Florida Consumer Action Network, www.fcan.org, is a non-partisan grassroots organization with more than 40,000 members statewide that is working to regulate guns for health and safety."

No, they're a large collection of 'useful idiots' (per Karl Marx) manipulated by a cadre of liberal neosocialists who want free citizens turned into mere subjects of the Almighty Fedgov.

There is hope, though. Even the liberal Dems are backing off gun control as an issue, as it lost Gore the Presidency and his own home state. This was reaffirmed recently in the Michigan Dem primary for the governorship, where pro-gun John Dingell stomped anti-gun Lynn Rivers after she bought in Sarah Brady to campaign for her. Gun control is political loser, and the Dems are running from it now. :^)

I'm a little leery of the contention that the left has backed off gun control as an issue. Historically, they tend to be pragmatic about issues they can't immediately control. I think their hatred of guns and gun owners is still just as virulent, but they know they need to find a different approach. Let the NRA memberships drop off dramatically in the wake of no immediate threats, plant seeds against guns and gun owners and start chipping away at our rights again. We need to be vigilant.

I'm glad to see that you properly characterized the "stomping" that Dingell gave to Lynn "down the" Rivers here in Michigan. Our left wing media (every newspaper in Michigan) characterized the defeat as a squeaker. According to the actual results, he kicked her sizable and ugly butt.

Idiots

Idiot is the correct expression but exactly who are the idiots? Is it the Florida Consumer Action Network or is it the people who accept the assertion that firearms deaths among children and youth are preventable, if parents would take guns out of their homes without questioning the data nor the motives.

To the clear thinkers who are curious enough to question the assertion I would offer a few simple observations to consider.

The age of majority in the state of Florida is eighteen. That means that when a person reaches the age of eighteen the state of Florida no longer considers them nor treats them as a child. The Center for Florida's Children is a private, not for profit 501(c)(3) non-partisan citizen's organization. I mention this group because they acknowledge that Florida's children are the 23.7% of Floridians under the age of eighteen.

That leaves the youth portion included in the assertion to be those Floridians who are exactly nineteen years of age. The Floridians who are clear thinkers might question why the age of nineteen was selected for the statistics and why the data was not broken down between the children who are under eighteen years of age and the youth who are exactly nineteen years of age. Those who don't question it just might be the idiots.

Statistics are like a fine perfume, meant to be sniffed, but never inhaled.

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