Advocates for safely storing guns speak out after Michigan school shooting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
After the details were released that the suspect’s father purchased the semi-automatic gun used in a Michigan high school shooting four days before the incident, advocates for safely storing guns offer advice.
Adam Duncan with North Star Training said storing guns in the home is broken down into two categories; home defense or self-defense guns and hunting guns.
"Guns that are being stored should always be secured with some sort of gun safe, a locked room, and then also a gun lock, either a trigger lock or a chamber lock," Duncan said.
Duncan said technology has advanced the security aspects.
"The safest way is to have it within your immediate control. If it can't be within your immediate control, then having that security as well and that could be a small safe whether you use a key, a combination or fingerprints," Duncan said.
Having children in the home should increase the knowledge and awareness of safety issues.
"As an example, for foster homes, there is a requirement for the way those guns are stored. Weapons and ammunition are stored separately, and at least two active locking mechanisms are needed," Duncan said. "As an example, a safe and a trigger lock or a chamber lock are the way that those guns are supposed to be secured whenever there are children within the home."
Catey Terry, with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, says 5.4 million children live in this country live in a home with an unsecured weapon. "I think what we saw happen in Michigan is what happens in cases like that."
Duncan said that the Second Amendment should not be infringed, but at the same time, there is a responsibility that parents have when they have both a firearm and a child.
Terry agreed by saying, "We live in Missouri. It's a hunting culture here, but it's incumbent on parents to store guns safely. It's not OK to have weapons stored in your home with teenagers for a lot of reasons."
Terry explained that 100 people are killed by gun violence in this country every day. "So actually, yesterday was a very normal day in our country in a terrible way. Every one of us thinks that could be us. You know, that's in Michigan. It's in Florida. It's in Connecticut. It could be in Columbia someday."
