Many times they accidentally shoot others as well. "Gun accidents are the fifth-leading cause of accidental death for children age 14 and under" (National Safety Council). If we required safety locks on guns, children wouldn't be able to accidentally shoot themselves or others. According to the Center of Disease Control, more than eight hundred Americans die each year from guns fired by persons under the age of nineteen. While requiring safety locks wouldn't prevent older teens from using the guns, it would greatly reduce the number of young children acquiring guns and harming people. Children wouldn't be able to use them because of the safety lock and therefore even if they tried to fire them, they wouldn't go off and wouldn't hurt anyone. .
The second step we must take in order to slow down the level of gun related deaths is to require criminal background checks at all gun shows. Under the Brady Law, if a gun is sold by a federally licensed dealer they must do a background check. However, gun shows do not fall under this law unless the person selling the gun is a federally licensed dealer. This is a loophole we must close. By not requiring background checks at gun shows would mean that someone with an intense criminal background could easily access a gun. In 1995, 57% of former criminals owned a military gun, 69% owned a shotgun, 77% owned a sawed-off shotgun, 82% owned a revolver, and 79% owned an automatic handgun (Sheley 63). Many of these criminals could easily be acquiring their firearms at these gun shows. People who are criminals are people that are a threat to our society so why should we just be handing them weapons? Studies have shown that gun shows have become a place where a wide variety of criminals such as street gangs, white supremacists, would-be presidential assassins, and domestic terrorists acquire their firearms. It can also be said that criminals could easily purchase guns at gun shows and sell them to people underage or to other criminals.
