Democratic County Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchell says that while people have a Second Amendment right to own guns, they also have a responsibility to safely and securely store them.
This morning, Flagler-Mitchell released legislation that would require Monroe County gun owners to either store their firearms in locked, tamper-resistant cases and safes or secure them with tamper-proof locking devices, such as trigger locks. It would also require gun owners to immediately report any firearm or ammunition theft to law enforcement.
“I believe that responsibility should be enshrined in the county code,” Flagler-Mitchell says.
The proposal is meant to cut off a source of crime guns in the City of Rochester. Approximately 60 percent of the crime guns recovered by the Rochester Police Department were, at some point, legally owned within Monroe County, department officials have said. Many of the guns were stolen during burglaries.
Flagler-Mitchell plans to introduce the legislation by the end of the week. But if the referral passes — and odds are that Republicans will reject the proposal — enforcement could be a challenge. Flagler-Mitchell acknowledges that police and sheriff’s deputies can’t simply enter gun owners’ homes and to see if their guns are locked up.Â
Most firearm owners want to be safe, he says, and want to follow gun laws.
Democratic Minority Leader Carrie Andrews says that the proposal would help increase awareness around secure storage of firearms, which could help prevent thefts.
Flagler-Mitchell says that he’s introducing the legislation in response to continued gun violence nationally and locally, particularly the recent mass shootings in the city: one at the Boys and Girls Club on Genesee Street and one at a house party on Woodward Street. Flagler-Mitchell’s cousin, Herbert Thomas, was killed in the house party shooting — he was one of six people struck by the shooter.
“I cannot deny the pain of my family and say that I really do want to do something to change this,” Flagler-Mitchell says.
This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2015.
“Most firearm owners want to be safe, he says, and want to follow gun laws. ” Correction: Most gun owners already know and follow the rules of gun safety and don’t need ANOTHER nanny-state, condescending and unenforceable law aimed at legal law-abiding citizens.
This legislation may be unenforceable, but it makes sense. Too many guns have gotten into the wrong hands; causing countless death and injury.
The gun used in the Genesee street shootings was locked in a gun safe. They stole the whole safe. Will the owner be prosecuted because his guns were not secured? Is he responsible for the theft? Let’s pass a law to fine people if their car is stolen. I believe this proposed law will be used against gun owners. If you are charged with the crime of having a gun without a trigger lock, or having an otherwise ‘unsecured firearm’, that will be used against you when you try to renew your gun permit. The goal is to find new ways to take guns away.
Gun safes should be built into walls so they cannot be carried away.
So-called “bad neighborhoods” would be safer if the legal gun owners in the “good neighborhoods” would either lock up or get rid of their guns. More guns are stolen from suburban and rural homes than than from city residences. The moral imperative is: Don’t own a gun! What good are flawed laws that people won’t follow?
Mike Bruton: So we should disarm ourselves to make bad neighborhoods safe? Sounds like an unproven theory that no one would want to risk their lives on. You said “what good are flawed laws that people don’t follow?” Exactly the point with respect to the “NY SAFE Act”. Gun owners saw it as an obvious attempt by Cuomo to eventually deprive them of certain firearms – without compensation – that they legally owned and that are legal elsewhere in the US. As a result they chose not to register them.