They have fought CAP in Rhode Island, Washington and Indiana too. Here again, the powerful gun lobby uses dishonest rhetoric to imply that these laws would require people to lock up their guns all of the time, even if there were no children in the house, and would also make families vulnerable to crime. A 1997 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that state safe storage laws are particularly effective at reducing gun injuries and deaths among children. The NRA came to the Today Show to promote its message of enforcement over stronger laws and express its newfound interest in the safety of our children, but it failed to mention that, in its zeal to defeat all new gun control laws, no matter how reasonable, they have helped to make it easier for children and criminals to get guns. In December, the NRA led the fight in Illinois to reduce the penalty for illegally carrying a gun from a felony to a misdemeanor, and recently defeated a proposal in Utah that would have strengthened penalties for violent gun misdemeanants.
Talk is cheap.
After each horrible shooting in America, the NRA talks about its support for laws making it more difficult for children and criminals to get guns. Then they fight them when lawmakers try to pass these laws. When John McCain talks about his support for new gun safety laws, he doesn't mention that he voted against the Brady bill, the assault weapons ban, mandatory background checks for all sales at gun shows, even legislation banning the manufacture, sale and importation of undetectable plastic guns. When George W. Bush talks about protecting children from guns, he doesn't want to tell people that he opposed closing the gun show loophole in his state that still allow children and criminals to easily access guns, and signed into law one of the nation's most lax concealed-carry laws that allow permit holders to carry hidden handguns into most public places, even churches and amusement parks in Texas. Governor Bush also won't tell you how, in June 1999, he signed into law a bill that preempts Texas cities and counties from suing the gun industry to recover damages.