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Wednesday, December 16, 1998     Page:

Safer guns, safer parents will make for safer kids
   
Some things are just too dangerous to mix, too likely to turn into
tragedyDrinking and driving. Gasoline and open flame. Guns and children.
    The apparently accidental death of 11-year-old Scott Wolfe in a Newport
Township home last Friday illustrates once again the risk of keeping firearms
in a home with children.
   
All the details of Wolfe’s death have not been established. But initial
police reports said a loaded shotgun was leaning against a wall in a room
where Wolfe, a 15-year-old boy who lived in the home and another boy were
playing computer games. The gun was accidentally knocked over and it
apparently discharged when the 15-year-old, who has not been identified,
picked it up, striking Wolfe in the back, police said.
   
The 15-year-old’s family usually kept the shotgun in a locked closet, but
his father had forgotten to store the gun, according to police. If that is
true, it would represent a serious breach of responsibility.
   
We are not convinced that keeping a gun in a home with children is a wise
choice. But given the American taste for firearms, a hunting tradition that is
still quite strong and the Second Amendment right to bear arms, we know there
is little chance that millions of Americans will choose to give up their guns.
   
However, short of that, there are things that can be done- by our political
leaders, gun manufacturers and parents- to lessen the possibility that those
guns will fall into the hands of children and harm them.
   
State legislators should explore gun-storage laws, requiring that firearms
be kept in locked cabinets or closets. Federal legislators should work with
gun manufacturers to develop, and mandate, child-resistant locking mechanisms
for the guns themselves.
   
But the biggest impact can, and must, be made by parents. Guns should be
safely stored, preferably separate from ammunition. Parents must discuss the
issue among themselves, making sure there are no guns, or at least no unsafely
stored guns, in their homes. Parents must instruct their children on the
dangers of guns and on the proper way to react if they come across a gun in a
home, or elsewhere.
   
As we said earlier, we are not convinced guns belong in a home wit