I

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5031

To amend the Consumer Product Safety Act to confirm the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s jurisdiction over child safety devices for handguns, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 27, 2000

Mr. ENGEL (for himself, Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin, and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Consumer Product Safety Act to confirm

the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s jurisdiction

over child safety devices for handguns, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Handgun Injury

5 Prevention Act of 2000’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) A 1997 Centers for Disease Control and

2 Prevention study found that the rate for uninten3 tional firearms-related deaths of children under the

4 age of 15 in the United States was 9 times greater

5 than the rate for 25 other industrialized countries

6 combined.

7 (2) A study in the December, 1995, issue of the

8 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found

9 that 25 percent of 3- to 4-year-olds and 70 percent

10 of 5- to 6-year-olds had sufficient finger strength to

11 fire 59 (or 92 percent) of the 64 commonly available

12 handguns examined in the study.

13 (3) Suicide accounted for 30 percent of child

14 and teen gun deaths in 1999. The risk of suicide is

15 5 times greater in households with guns. Seventy16 five percent of the guns involved in self-inflicted and

17 unintentional firearm injuries among children come

18 from the victim’s home or the home of a friend or

19 relative.

20 (4) Many currently available trigger locks, safe21 ty locks, lock boxes, and other similar devices are in22 adequate to prevent the accidental discharge of the

23 firearms to which they are attached.
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1 SEC. 3. AMENDMENT OF CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

2 ACT.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Consumer Product Safety

4 Act (15 U.S.C. 2051 et seq.) is amended by adding at

5 the end thereof the following:

6 ‘‘SEC. 38. CHILD HANDGUN SAFETY DEVICES.

7 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARD.—

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—

9 ‘‘(A) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—Notwith10 standing section 3(a)(1)(E) of this Act, the

11 Commission shall initiate a rulemaking pro12 ceeding under section 553 of title 5, United

13 States Code, within 90 days after the date of

14 enactment of the Child Handgun Injury Pre15 vention Act of 2000 to establish a consumer

16 product safety standard for handgun locks. The

17 Commission may extend the 90-day period for

18 good cause. Notwithstanding any other provi19 sion of law, including chapter 5 of title 5,

20 United States Code, the Commission shall pro21 mulgate a final consumer product safety stand22 ard under this paragraph within 12 months

23 after the date on which it initiated the rule24 making. The Commission may extend that 12-

25 month period for good cause. The consumer

26 product safety standard promulgated under this
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1 paragraph shall take effect 6 months after the

2 date on which the final standard is promul3 gated.

4 ‘‘(B) STANDARD REQUIREMENTS.—The

5 standard promulgated under subparagraph (A)

6 shall require gun locks that—

7 ‘‘(i) are sufficiently difficult for chil8 dren to de-activate or remove; and

9 ‘‘(ii) prevent the discharge of the

10 handgun unless the gunlock has been de11 activated or removed.

12 ‘‘(2) CERTAIN PROVISIONS NOT TO APPLY.—

13 ‘‘(A) PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT.—Sections

14 7, 9, and 30(d) of this Act do not apply to the

15 rulemaking proceeding under paragraph (1).

16 Section 11 of this Act does not apply to any

17 consumer product safety standard promulgated

18 under paragraph (1).

19 ‘‘(B) CHAPTER 5 OF TITLE 5.—Except for

20 section 553, chapter 5 of title 5, United States

21 Code, does not apply to this section.

22 ‘‘(C) CHAPTER 6 OF TITLE 5.—Chapter 6

23 of title 5, United States Code, does not apply

24 to this section.
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1 ‘‘(D) NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

2 ACT.—The National Environmental Policy Act

3 of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321) does not apply to

4 this section.

5 ‘‘(b) NO EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Notwithstanding

6 section 26 of this Act, this section does not annul, alter,

7 impair, affect, or exempt any person subject to the provi8 sions of this section from complying with any provision

9 of the law of any State or any political subdivision thereof,

10 except to the extent that such provisions of State law are

11 inconsistent with any provision of this section, and then

12 only to the extent of the inconsistency. A provision of

13 State law is not inconsistent with this section if such pro14 vision affords greater protection to children in respect of

15 handguns than is afforded by this section.

16 ‘‘(c) ENFORCEMENT.—Notwithstanding subsection

17 (a)(2)(A), the consumer product safety standard promul18 gated by the Commission under subsection (a) shall be en19 forced under this Act as if it were a consumer product

20 safety standard described in section 7(a).

21 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

22 ‘‘(1) CHILD.—The term ‘child’ means an indi23 vidual who has not attained the age of 13 years.

24 ‘‘(2) HANDGUN LOCK.—The term ‘handgun

25 lock’ means any disabling or locking device that is
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1 not built into the handgun at the time of manufac2 ture and that is designed to prevent the handgun

3 from being discharged unless the device has been de4 activated or removed.

5 ‘‘(3) HANDGUN.—The term ‘handgun’—

6 ‘‘(A) has the meaning given that term in

7 section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code;

8 and

9 ‘‘(B) includes any article taxable at the

10 rate of 10 percent under section 4181 of the In11 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 4181).

12 ‘‘(4) INCORPORATED DEFINITIONS.—The terms

13 ‘licensed importer’, ‘licensed manufacturer’, and ‘li14 censed dealer’ have the meanings given those terms

15 in section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code.’’.

16 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 1 of the

17 Consumer Product Safety Act is amended by adding at

18 the end of the table of contents the following:

‘‘Sec. 38. Child handgun safety devices.’’.

19 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

20 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Con21 sumer Product Safety Commission $2,000,000 to carry

22 out the provisions of section 38 of the Consumer Product

23 Safety Act, such sums to remain available until expended.

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