Lock up your unsupervised guns and enjoy our shooting sports. Democracy is a messy business, and it’s a safe business if we pay attention.

Our only absolute Constitutional right is that against self incrimination. All the others have been limited, either by wording or by statute. So let’s talk about gun laws in California.

Danged inconvenient are safe storage laws. We’d like our groovy old Winchester to hang above the fireplace. But our 16-year-old might have pocketed a couple .30-30 rounds from the last parental range trip and could for reals blast his neighbor with it who just defeated him in “Call Of Duty.” This is why we maintain that unless you’re carrying it, fondling it, or can see directly where it’s stashed, your guns should be locked up. In California we can’t buy a gun unless we sign an affidavit that we have a gun safe or if we bring or buy a gun lock.

Foolishly, some of us continue to focus on “the gun” as the thing. There is no such thing as “things,” only systems. Bullets do not up and fling themselves into bodies of their own volition. Triggers do not pull themselves — people do, people who are influenced by systems. Safe storage is one system.

Age limits for guns is another system. Age limits exist and must be enforced. Admittedly many California gun laws are bogus, like waiting 10 days to buy a second gun. The “safe” gun roster is another — if the gun was so poorly made that it blows up during use, prohibiting the sale of that gun would not be bogus. But “the roster” goes way too far.

Source: Lock up your guns, and let’s keep it safe | Editor For A Day

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