Herb Kohl: “if we are going to give gun dealers immunity from lawsuits, then I believe we should insist they take every safety…”

“if we are going to give gun dealers immunity from lawsuits, then I believe we should insist they take every safety precaution available when selling firearms. This amendment goes a long way to help reduce the number of accidental shootings, particularly among the most vulnerable members of our society, our children, by requiring dealers to sell a safety device with all handguns. We have all read troubling stories about lives cut short by accidental shootings and teen suicides. They are made all the more terrible by the knowledge that many were preventable. The annual number of firearm injuries and deaths involving children is startling. According to the most recent stats available, thousands of people are injured every year in accidental shootings, including more than 800 gun-related tragedies that resulted in death. In addition, it is estimated that every 6 hours, a young person between the ages of 10 and 19 commits suicide with a firearm. In all, 13,053 children were injured by firearms in 2002. Securing the firearm with a child safety lock could have prevented many of these tragedies. The sad truth is that we are inviting disaster every time an unlocked gun is easily accessible to children. Eleven million children live in households with guns, and in 65 percent of those homes, the gun is accessible to the child. In 13 percent of them, the gun is left loaded and not locked. This amendment will help address this problem.…”