Girls Club Anti-Violence Toolkit & Resource Guide (2018)

Ten completely reasonable, sensible and obvious ways to end the Gun Violence epidemic.

Anti-Violence Toolkit and Resource Guide

Let’s face it; life is good. As we Americans step into the new millennium, we are awash in labor-saving, knowledge-expanding, pleasure-giving commodities far beyond the wildest dreams of any imperial Roman. No question; we Americans like our stuff.

But we also like to feel safe. And for that reason we have created governmental agencies to establish and enforce safety standards for every consumer product.

With one exception.

As strange as it may sound, the one product that is not subject to safety standards is firearms.

This booklet will demonstrate that firearms stand as a curious exception to Americans’ proud record of holding industry accountable for the safety of our products.

And, we suggest a new approach to stopping gun violence: by ensuring that guns meet the same safety standards as every other product. We will outline...

10

completely

reasonable, sensible,

and obvious

ways to reduce gun violence.

DESIGN

1 2 3

A toaster tells you when it’s “on.”

A camera indicates when it’s loaded. Why not guns?

Design guns to show when they are loaded.

Tighten trigger pulls.

Explore high-tech “personalized” guns.

We safeguard our children from every product hazard under the sun.

Our medicine bottles are designed to foil tiny fingers. We buckle up for safety. We have safety standards for toys, even toy guns. So why is it that most real guns can be sold without child-proof design features?

WHAT COULD BE DONE? PLENTY. Guns could be designed with “load indicators” to show when there’s still a bullet left in the chamber. Mechanisms to prevent a gun from firing once the ammunition clip is removed could be mandatory.

Trigger pulls could be tightened to prevent small children from firing. Keypads and electronic “rings” promise to personalize a gun so only its owner can fire it.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE In 1965, Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed, showed that auto accidents and injuries in the popular Corvair automobile were typically caused by faulty engineering and design, not by bad drivers, as the auto industry had claimed. As a result, the government stepped in to require that the industry make safer cars. (And car makers discovered that buyers will pay for safety features!) Today we have airbags, center brake lights and shockabsorbing bumpers that make driving—as an inherently dangerous activity—safer.

US death rates per mile driven are now among the lowest in the world. By contrast, our firearms death rate is higher than that of any other developed country. Designing for safety helps!

PRODUCTION

4 5

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Small changes in production could save lives.

Establish industry-wide manufacturing standards.

Establish a serial identification system for

guns to reduce illegal use.

Buy an electric hand-saw for your latest home-improvement project and you can trust that it will not cause injury if properly used. The same holds true for extension cords, gas stoves and microwave ovens. Why? Because these products are made according to industry standards.

Not true, unfortunately, for many handguns. For instance, “Saturday Night Specials” are made so poorly that they may discharge when dropped on the floor! If gun makers were guided by industry standards, inadvertent deaths and injuries caused by guns could be avoided.

And, just as vehicle identification numbers in motor vehicles help reduce theft, unique serials numbers in guns and technology that “fingerprints” bullets would help police catch criminals.

AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE It’s as American as apple pie to expect that whatever happens in production lines won’t endanger your family’s health and safety. In 1906, for instance, after Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle revealed appalling conditions in the meat-packing industry, public outrage led to stronger regulations to ensure a safe food supply. Today, most Americans demand that watchful regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture make sure that our food is safe. We demand action if there’s bacteria in our beef.

Why not regulate the production of guns, which are involved in 30,000 deaths a year?

DISTRIBUTION

6 7

Would you transfer ownership of a car without proper paperwork?

Weed out rotten apple dealers.

The Gun-Show loophole It’s true what they say about rotten apples. In 1999, a study by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms showed how just a handful of “bad apples” in the distribution chain (less than one percent of federally licensed gun dealers) sold half the guns used in crimes.

Unscrupulous dealers aren’t the only problem. Weak laws are problematic, too. At gun shows, due to a “loophole” in the law, unlicensed private dealers may legally sell guns to anyone—without doing the background checks required of federally-licensed firearm dealers. Guns are sold over the backyard fence, off the back of trucks...with no requirement for title transfers.

Guns are potentially deadly weapons. Even when acquired for legitimate purposes, we need to keep an eye on who’s selling them, who’s buying them, and to monitor the distribution chain.

HISTORY LESSON Alcohol is especially dangerous in the hands of young people, so we have created laws that establish minimum ages for consumption. Of course, that hasn’t stopped many unscrupulous liquor dealers and bar owners from selling to underage people or those who have obviously had enough to drink. So, we’ve taken a variety of steps to stop irresponsible liquor sales. At least 20 states, for instance, have outlawed “happy hours”. Some states require bartenders to take classes in responsible service. If we can change the distribution chain for alcohol in the interests of public safety, we can tighten up the distribution chain for guns, too.

SALES If automobiles require a license to operate, why not handguns?

8 9

Include safety warnings and child safety locks with all guns that are sold.

Establish a licensing system for all handgun owners.

When we buy medicine, we get reams of small print on safe use, including reminders about storing it out of children’s reach. When we buy refrigerators or electric toothbrushes, we receive product safety warnings, including the most obvious reminders not to put an electrical appliance in water.

The product warnings are good enough for hair dryers, they’re good enough for guns. Would you let an 18 year old drive a car without driver safety courses, licensing, registration, and insurance? No way. Drivers must know the rules of the road, traffic laws and maintain a record of safe performance. In exchange, drivers receive a license. A handgun licensing system would require license holders to demonstrate responsible operation and storage practices.

WHY REINVENT THE WHEEL? Ever since its invention in the 1800’s, we’ve recognized that cars are dangerous machines that need to be operated by skillful and, ultimately, licensed drivers. In order to keep their licenses, drivers must abide by laws intended for the safety of the driver—and everyone else on the road. Most states require that all vehicle occupants wear seatbelts. These laws have reduced rates of auto fatalities and injuries.

But you can buy a gun without proven knowledge of how to operate it safely.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT If a strange virus killed 30,000 Americans a year, wouldn’t our government respond?

10

Give consumer-protection oversight over guns to an appropriate agency of the federal government.

More than 30,000 men, women, and children die from gunfire in the US every year; three times that many are injured. Guns’ prominence as a cause of death and injury in the US is unique among developed nations.

Yet firearms are not regulated for safety of design, production, distribution or sales. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates motor vehicle safety and has reduced highway deaths and injuries, in large part by focusing attention on safer design. We sorely need an equivalent agency to regulate firearm safety. It’s time that we have a watchdog for the gun industry, just like we do for food and motor vehicles.

PRECEDENT FOR PREVENTION Through the 1930’s, reports of unsafe cosmetics, useless and dangerous patent medicines, and adulterated foods arose with alarming frequency. The existing FDA lacked the powers to regulate those products. When, in 1937, a liquid form of a sulfa drug was placed on the market and more than 100 people including children died from it, public pressure led to expansion of the FDA’s powers. Now, manufacturers must prove the safety of new drugs to the FDA’s satisfaction. In contrast: 50,000 youths died from guns in one decade (1984–1995), yet no federal agency is charged with regulating firearms for safety.

n eleve Ten completely reasonable, ways to end the Gun

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Design guns to show when they are loaded.

Tighten trigger pulls.

Explore high-tech “personalized” guns.

Establish industry-wide manufacturing standards.

Establish a serial identification system for guns to reduce illegal use.

Weed out “rotten apple” dealers.

Close the gun-show “loophole”.

Include safety warnings and child safety locks with all guns that are sold.

Establish a licensing system for all handgun owners.

Give consumer-protection oversight over guns to an appropriate agency of the federal government.

sensible and obvious Violence Epidemic

11

It’s time to add #11 to this list: BAN NON-MILITARY OWNERSHIP OF ASSAULT WEAPONS.

Virtually every product sold to consumers in this country, except guns, is subject to federal health safety requirements. Yet firearms, capable of killing or injuring thousands of Americans each year, are exempt from safeguards that are otherwise considered standard for consumer products.

Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the nation’s largest consumer advocacy organization, strongly supports the policy that federal regulations should govern guns the way other regulations ensure the safety of all other consumer products, be it a baby rattle, the cars we drive, or the food we eat.

To reverse the tide of firearm injuries and deaths, CFA supports the enactment of federal regulations that would govern the design, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition.

What You Can Do Your actions DO count.

You CAN make a difference!

GET ACTIVE Let your candidates and friends know that our government ought to regulate firearms just like it does every other product we Americans buy, whether it’s cars, pharmaceuticals, toasters or teddy-bears.

GET INFORMED Find out about how guns are regulated for safety—or not. And inquire about firearm availability in your own state, community, and neighborhood.

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN If you have children in the home, follow the guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics and do not keep a gun in the home where children visit and reside.

If you own firearms, make sure that they are kept unloaded and locked safely.

START TALKING If you’re a parent, ask your child’s best playmates’ parents (or best friend, if you have teens) whether they have firearms in their home.

Ask grandparents and relatives, too. Find out how the guns are stored, where the ammunition is, and who as access to it.

WRITE A LETTER Sit down and write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Or write to your local, state or federal elected officials, asking why toasters and teddy-bears, cars, food and pharmaceuticals are more regulated for safety than firearms, and why we don’t have reasonable product safety regulation of firearms.

JOIN A GROUP There are many organizations concerned with consumer safety and also gun violence prevention, at both the state and national level.

SPEAK OUT Demand that your elected officials support reasonable product safety regulations, for instance: measures such as child safety locks and load indicators; not allowing felons to purchase a firearm legally, whether it’s at a gun show or over the Internet; cracking down on gun dealers who turn a blind eye and sell firearms to minors or criminals; and similar preventive measures. It’s just common sense.

The Lower Eastside Girls Club on the way to the Million Mom March for Gun Control in Washington, DC, 2000.

This booklet was originally published in 2000 by an organization called Silent March—a non-profit grassroots group that advocated for common sense regulation of fire arms. That was the same year The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York boarded buses to the very first Million Mom March. We almost can’t believe that 18 years later we are still dealing with the horrors of gun violence in America.

We made every attempt to locate Silent March to secure permission to republish this booklet, to no avail. Whoever they are, we thank them and feel confident that they would welcome our decision to reprint this extraordinary treatise on the need for sensible gun control — now more than ever!

Special thanks to The Harman Family Foundation, The Collegiate Churches of New York, and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development for supporting our non-violence education activities.

WWW.GIRLSCLUB.ORG

You need a license to own a hot-dog stand, a permit to dig a well, a license to practice therapy. We have warnings on cigarettes, beer, kitchen cleaners, and plastic dry cleaning bags. We have building codes, fire codes, road-construction codes. Heck, you can’t sell a mattress without its tags.

But when it comes to product safety regulations for guns…

NOTHING!