The General Accounting Office reported in 1991 that mechanical safety locks are unreliable in preventing children over 6 years of age from using a gun. Indeed gun locks or gun safes were unsuccessfully employed in four of the five school shootings over the past year. Without such a disclaimer, imagine the lawsuits manufacturers would face for supplying locks that they know would fail to guarantee protection. Research into similar liability involving children's vaccines suggests that such liability account for an amazing 96 percent of the price of a product. Proposals to make parents criminally liable for their children's using guns have their own problems, but they raise broader issues of what is motivating the new rules.
Laws frequently have unintended consequences.