“Are gun manufacturers doing enough to keep their guns safe?”

Article: “Childproofing guns.”

This article discusses the “childproofing” of firearms for the everyday firearms that are stored in people’s homes such as handguns and shotguns. The “childproofing” is referring to the government mandated safety features on firearms which make it harder for children to accidentally fire them. The article relates automotive manufacturers to firearm manufacturers, in which the author describes how the automotive manufacturers have government mandated safety features in order to keep the occupants safe, and firearm manufacturers should be doing the same in order to keep the owners and the people around them safe. The author continued to talk about how the NRA (National Rifle Association) isn’t quite happy with these arguments as they lobby for the “Don’t Tread on Me” argument. Firearm manufacturers on the other hand, want these laws to get published. The article described how they formed their own association in order to help laws like this get passed. Additionally, these manufacturers are working to create new technology for people to keep themselves and others safe. The bulk of the article discusses how most of these child safety and accidental fire issues are taken up in court with the firearm manufacturers. The author describes how these court cases are mostly won in favor of the manufacturers, yet the number of cases that continue to pile in keep growing and growing; this leads to an increase in the amount of lawyer fees required in order to fight these cases and it is eating into the profits of these manufacturers, almost as much as it would in order to implement the safety features that should have been initially mandated which is why these manufacturers are choosing to create and add these safety features regardless. It was quite interesting to see just how little the government is doing in order to keep people safe and that the manufacturers have taken it upon themselves in order to add these safety features. This could mean that smaller manufacturers that do not have the money to create or add safety features to their rifles, do have the ability to release weapons with little to no safety features.

“For gun control groups, the new argument–which they hope to showcase in the Dix case–is that gun companies carry the same burden of responsibility as car manufacturers, which have incorporated seat belts, air bags, locks, and keys in an effort to make their products safer, to prevent unauthorized use, and, not coincidentally, to ward off lawsuits.”

“While new NRA president Heston struck familiar don’t-tread-on-us themes at last week’s convention in Philadelphia, some gun makers are pushing to get on the pro-safety side of the safety debate.”

Witkin, Gordon. “Childproofing Guns.” U.S. News & World Report, vol. 124, no. 24, June 1998, p. 24. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=710522&site=ehost-live&scope=site.