Eric Burnley, in his recent Outdoors column, advocates gun safety classes for elementary school students. His rationale is worthy, but incredibly insufficient. Teaching children to avoid touching guns in their household, or any other one, is fine in and of itself.
Let’s take this a step further, however. Any gun that any child would find and handle would be completely safe if it had a trigger lock on it. This child would not even handle said gun if it were locked in a gun safe. Why are these deadly weapons lying around the house? And loaded, of all things.
I am anticipating heated debate on this topic. Oh, we cannot force gun owners to lock up their guns, or put trigger locks on them. How will they defend themselves when their home is invaded? In the meantime, children die from their curiosity about guns. To paraphrase the mantra of politics, “Lock it up!”
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to viewpoints@capegazette.com. All letters are considered at the discretion of the newsroom and published as space allows. Due to the large volume of submissions, we cannot acknowledge receipt of each submission. Letters must include a phone number and address for verification. Keep letters to 400 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content or length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Letters should focus on local issues, not national topics or personalities. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days regarding a particular topic. Authors may submit a second letter within that time period if it pertains to a different issue. Letters may not be critical of personalities or specific businesses. Criticism of public figures is permissible. Endorsement letters for political candidates are no longer accepted. Letters must be the author’s original work, and may not be generated by artificial intelligence tools. Templates, form letters and letters containing language similar to other submissions will not be published.
