Angie Craig: “72 of you have just said that gun safety is important, and that we ought to educate, and we ought to use Byrne funds to…”

“72 of you have just said that gun safety is important, and that we ought to educate, and we ought to use Byrne funds to do so--local law enforcement, State law enforcement, and private entities that teach licensed gun safety. We have also said that gun dealers ought to have safety devices available. But we have also said there is a States rights issue here. Thirty-four States now have consent to carry. Safety is an issue. And guess what. Accidental deaths are declining, and they are declining because of education, not because of Federal mandates. Even manufacturers say you put a trigger lock on a loaded gun and it is dangerous. Trigger locks I agree with. They are for empty guns. They are for stored guns. They are not called child locks, they are called safety locks. We believe in that. But why should it be a Federal mandate? It should not be. The vote you just cast is the right vote. It mandates certain requirements at the local level be provided, and it allows education, and, more importantly, it says train and educate, don't control from the Federal level.”