Rights come with responsibilities, but this has been lost in the conversation about guns and schools. I’m a soldier and a teacher. I support the Second Amendment and safe schools. We can have both.
Let’s talk about military weapon discipline as a case study in responsibility. My military weapon is secured when I’m not on field training, on the firing range or in an active combat zone. There are two locks between me and that gun: the arms room and the arms rack.
How does this connect to school safety? After the Columbine shooting, the Secret Service and Department of Education studied school attacks. They found that most perpetrators were students with guns acquired from home or the home of a relative. Translation: easy gun access.
A Wall Street Journal article from April finds similar results: Most school shooters are students getting guns from home. There are a few cases where weapons were stolen from legal owners before an attack, but the weapons were still not properly secured.
What qualifies as proper gun storage? I’d suggest the same principle the military uses: two locks between the gun and anyone accessing it. A gun safe opened by fingerprint in a home with a locked front door would work for loaded weapons. These safes open in about two seconds so you still have easy access, but kids can’t get ahold of them.
For unloaded weapons, trigger locks and/or locked gun cases are OK if the guns are still inaccessible to children, but ammunition must be locked up separately.
Some argue that if criminals want to get guns, they will find a way. The overwhelming majority of school shooters have no prior criminal record. Guns are simply too easy to get.
Some folks will view this as an attack on the Second Amendment. Nonsense. It speaks of a well-regulated militia. Soldiers maintain control of their weapons. If not, they’re punished. Here’s an idea for the rest of us: If you’re too careless to secure your firearm, you’re irresponsible and you shouldn’t have one.
A few people insist medications and cleaning chemicals kill kids “just like guns.” Actually, research shows child-resistant caps reduce accidental poisonings. If you’re childproofing your home, you’re also adding child-locks to doors and cabinets. Two locks. We make it harder to get into harmful chemicals and medications than we expect for access to firearms.
Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of death in the United States so sometimes friends suggest we should confiscate cars. That’s as ridiculous as confiscating guns. Still, we regulate cars to reduce motor vehicle deaths. Failure to use a seatbelt gets you a ticket. Result? Fewer crash deaths.
Here’s another benefit: Properly securing firearms will significantly reduce Utah’s suicide rate.
Eighty-six percent of our firearms deaths are suicides. Most youth suicides are by firearm. Some kids might find another way, but states with mandatory storage rules have lower suicide rates. From the RAND “Gun Policy in America” meta-analysis in March of this year:
“The strongest available evidence supports the conclusion that laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of children reduce firearm self-injuries, suicides and unintended injuries to children.”
Let’s protect our rights and improve school safety by updating Utah’s gun regulations.
Responsible firearms owners should secure firearms properly with two locks, unless they have physical control or direct supervision of their weapons. Firearm sales should include installed trigger locks or gun safes in all transactions. We must write these expectations into law.
If your child takes your gun to school, you’re an irresponsible gun owner and make the rest of us look bad. Exercise your rights responsibly to keep the rest of us safe.
Lock them up.
Deborah Gatrell
Deborah Gatrell is a social studies teacher in Granite School District, a National Board Certified Teacher and a Utah Teacher Fellow with 19 years of service in the National Guard.