Gun storage saves lives

Thanks for last month’s article about the initiative, Asking Saves Kids. Encouraging child caregivers to ask friends and relatives about secure gun storage prompts responsible gun owners to store firearms securely in homes and vehicles, thus keeping loaded guns away from children, those at risk of suicide and thieves. It’s the right thing to do.

Some 1.7 million American kids live in homes with loaded, unlocked guns, thousands of Kentucky children likely among them. Already this year, Kentucky children have shot other children with unsecured guns in Hulen, Elizabethtown, Louisville and Benton.

Until all adult gun owners act responsibly, we should issue reminders to lock up those firearms, because safety is always the responsibility of adults in charge, not the responsibility of curious kids.

I sincerely hope for new public policy encouraging secure firearm storage by ordaining penalties for gun owners whose unsecured guns end up injuring or harming others.