The state legislature passed a bill this month that would require any gun owner with a child living with them under the age of 16 to store their guns in a gun safe. If a child doesn’t live with the gun owner, but is at the house, all guns would need to be stored in a gun safe while the child is present.
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Guns hang on a wall for sale at Intimidator Sports.
© 2019 Natalie Dascoulias
Some gun owners in the Syracuse community support the idea. Retired Police Officer, Dave Sherwood says that he supports the idea, but doesn’t think that it will be easy to enforce.
“In order to get into someone’s home, you have to have a search warrant. So the only way you’d be able to enforce it is if someone committed a crime,” he says. “Even if someone were to make a complaint. Let’s says you came into my house and you see guns all over my house, I don’t know that you would get a search warrant from the judge to come into the home.”
Sherwood stores his guns in a gun safe whenever they are not being used. He says he never feels like anyone is unsafe when in his home.
“I think that most responsible gun owners would be in favor of this idea because most of them already keep their guns in a safe and don’t want any trouble,” he says.
Stanley Phillips says the intentions of the bill are good, but thinks it might interfere with his second amendment rights.
“Constitutionally how does that match up to the U.S. constitution and the right to bear arms?” he says.
Phillips says he keeps his hunting gun under his bed with a trigger lock on it. He says this is the best way to keep people in the house safe but still have easy access to it for self defense reasons at night. Phillips has had four daughters live in his house with the gun under his bed and says he has never felt like they were in danger from it.
Senator Liz Krueger is the sponsor on this bill. She sponsored a similar bill in 2016 that was voted down.
