Safety tips for gun owners
Acting on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, police have arrested seventeen year old Kira Plunkett. Plunkett is the aunt of four-year-old Honey Flowers, who accidentally shot herself with a gun that Plunkett left in a bag on her bed. The case against Plunkett will question the level of responsibility gun owners must maintain for their weapon’s safe use and storage. This afternoon gun expert Charlie Chavannes explained to News 5’s Janelle Chanona what owners should do to make sure that their loved ones aren’t killed or injured by accident.
Charlie Chavannes
“You would be best advised to remove the child’s curiosity by showing him or her the gun first of all, and letting them know this is something that you should not play with. If they see it and daddy or mommy is not around, this is not for them to play with, because they can get hurt. Then, you immediately remove the possibility of curiosity. If the child runs up on the gun when the parent is not there, then the scenario I think is even. They’ve seen it, they know it’s a gun, nobody is around, they want to want to play with it. To prevent that, then the parent should consider lock and key. Locking the gun in a safe place and keeping the key on them and not near to the lock.”
“This is my personal firearm. I use it like I mentioned, for target practice. Right now, the slide is back, it is empty; there are no bullets in the gun itself. This is the empty magazine, so this gun is absolutely safe at this moment. This is a good way to keep it if you want to keep your gun safe. If you’re keeping your gun with a loaded magazine-this is empty–drum forward, with the hammer down, then this is safe, there is nothing to worry about. If the hammer is drawn back, there’s a safety catch on the side. If it has a bullet in it, it will be ready for use. If you notice, I am pointing this away from all of us. The gun should always be pointed in a safe direction, never at anybody.”
“There are devices that you can place here that prevent the trigger from being released. You can also put a regular lock into the trigger guard to prevent it from being pulled. If you put it behind here, then it can’t be manipulated. The other thing is to not keep a bullet in here.”
“A gun as I was taught, is always loaded. So you have to treat it as though it’s loaded when you’re handling it. You never point a gun at somebody if you’re not serious at pointing a gun at somebody. You never fiddle with it unless you know what you’re doing at the moment that you’re doing it. And basically, treat the gun as if though it is loaded.
Back to the safety aspect in the home. If you have a safe or a locked area where you can keep your gun under lock and key, then that is the best thing to do. I also recommend that everybody know in the house that you have the gun, that you’re keeping the gun in the house. Everybody should know where it is, what it is, what not to do, especially not to touch it. I think children are very curious and if the parents are not around, they are definitely going to be checking around to see what…and if they come across the gun, they should know not to interfere with it.”
Janelle Chanona
“Now logic would dictate that if you have your gun locked away in some area of your house, and you have the ammunition in another, then at the moment you need it you won’t be able to get at it…”
Charlie Chavannes,
“If a criminal breaks into your house this is a treasure for him to steal, because I think this is the first thing that they are looking for nowadays. This is something that they can use to perpetrate more crime. So the owner of the house needs to take that into consideration when he’s going to keep his gun in his house. How is he going to react in this case if he needs a gun. there are things that you need to consider, if you wake up in the middle of the night when there’s a thief there, you’re going to be groggy. The thief has been awake all night long, he is on his P’s and Q’s, so it’s not likely that you’d be able to match him wit-wise. So that would be the first thing to consider, do you want to have your gun next to you in a case like that, or do you want to use your brain first before thinking about using your gun. These are things that I would advise people to contemplate.”
Penalties for keeping an unlicensed firearm and ammunition include possible jail time and fines at the discretion of a magistrate.
