Gun Storage

[u/RationalTidbits]

Obviously a current topic…

Obviously, storage requirements are an infringement on self-protection, not just for adults in the house, but also, say, for a teenage girl who finds herself facing a 200-pound, armed intruder when her parents happen to be away from home.

But what about the case of a child who is a known threat, like that Virginia six-year-old who shot his teacher? (Or whatever other scenario you imagine.) The parents have criminal and civil liability for failure to store guns under whatever imagined requirements?

To be clear, I am on the no-storage-requirements side of this. (It’s just another avenue in the pursuit of nullification.) But talk me through the gray areas and outlier cases.

** Re-stating the question more clearly: Give me gun storage scenarios (if any), where you would say, hands down and without hesitation, THAT parent 100% needs criminal charges. **

————————————

Thank you! You all helped me put a sharper edge on my thinking.

Here is where I have landed so far:

— If a child or teenager becomes committed to murder or self-deletion, LOTS of things have gone wrong that have nothing to do with the presence or storage of a gun.

— Parenting and home are the keys to understanding the problem, and they are a more effective solution, rather than storage laws, which only serve to criminalize gun ownership.

— That said, if anyone actively “aids” a known criminal or obviously dangerous person… or actively contributes to a situation that no reasonable person would (such as leaving a loaded gun on a daycare table)… then there are already laws to hold people accountable.

[u/Zin_dawg]

As a thought experiment: what liability would (should) parents have if this teenager has taken a car, and killed a classmate and a teacher? Should car keys, (or dangerous tools, like chainsaws) be locked up, the same way we lock up guns?

My kids are now adults; growing up, we were lucky that they were trustworthy. I have no idea how we would’ve handled this sort of “bad seed”

[u/RationalTidbits → u/Zin_dawg]

If a teenager “sneaks” a car out, my thought is that the liability is probably civil.

[u/Zin_dawg → u/RationalTidbits]

Agreed!

So, why the difference with guns? If a person is murdered, why is it kinda ok if a car is used, but not a gun? Is it because the advantages of gun ownership are discounted? So guns are seen as “only used by criminals/in crime”?