Dems pushing gun storage recommendations

Senate Democrats are looking to protect children from accidental gun deaths.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and 19 other lawmakers are calling for a public health and safety campaign warning about the dangers of having guns in the home.

In a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the senators requested the agency issue a list of best practices for securing firearms to keep them away from children.

“Federal campaigns, such as those related to drinking and driving and smoking, have demonstrated that public health and safety campaigns can improve understanding and reduce dangerous behavior, with significant public health benefits,” the senators wrote.

The senators are concerned about some 300 million guns in homes around the country. Not only are 46 people accidentally shot each day, they say, but another 55 people kill themselves with a gun.

Locking up guns at home could prevent many of these deaths, the senators reasoned.

“Death and injury by firearm is one of the most significant public health threats to young people in communities across our nation,” they wrote. “While long perceived as an urban issue, in fact, youth in the most rural U.S. counties are almost as likely to die from a gunshot, self-inflicted or otherwise, as those living in the most urban counties.”

Lawmakers want the GAO to examine the risks of having firearms in the home and issue a corresponding list of best practices for gun storage. 

They would also like the agency to study existing state and local policies for gun storage.

The other Senate Democrats who signed on to the letter include Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ben Cardin (Md.), Tom Carper (Dele.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), and Ron Wyden (Ore).