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Broken PromisesThe Failure of the Trigger Lock "Deal" Between the Gun Industry and the White HouseThe Alternative: Real Progress Toward Reducing Gun Death and InjuryNo federal agency has the authority to issue health and safety rules for firearms and ammunition. That makes guns virtually the only unregulated consumer products in America. This unique status must change if we are to see any meaningful reduction in the 36,000 deaths associated with firearms each year.Effective child safety lock legislation must include minimum safety standards for the locks themselves in addition to enforceable requirements that all guns be equipped with such devices. Moreover, the law must cover all entities in the chain of distribution to ensure that child safety devices actually reach consumers. Such legislation must authorize the Treasury Department to actively monitor the industry's compliance and empower the agency to enforce the law through the imposition of civil and criminal penalties. The VPC has drafted model legislation that meets these requirements. Moreover, safety devices and locks alone are not a solution to the plague of gun injury and death in America. A well-drafted lock law could be a small component of that solution, not a panacea. Until firearm manufacturers are held to the same health and safety standards as every other industry, guns will continue to end lives that could have been saved with a little more political courage.
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