GUN INDUSTRY REFORM

What Is the Only Unregulated Product in the United States?

Imagine a car made of a metal so inferior that, if hit at low speeds, passengers are easily crushed. Or imagine a car that doesn't have seat belts or locks on its doors and whose doors are so flimsy, a child could easily open them and fall out while the car is moving. Is this car unsafe?  Of course it is. Should the car manufacturer change the design of the car to prevent such accidents from occurring? Of course it should. But suppose the manufacturer says that these accidents are not its responsibility. It says the car functions exactly as it's supposed to:  it drives fine and it gets you where you want to go. The manufacturer says that it is the passengers' responsibility to make sure they don't fall out and that it is the driver's responsibility to make sure the car doesn't get hit. Is that a reasonable argument to make?

Of course it's not. Yet a comparable problem exists today in America with guns.

The Problem

Every year in this country, tens of thousands of people are killed or injured by guns. Many of these shootings are unintentional or suicides which could be prevented if the gun industry were more responsible in the design of its products. Thousands more are shot in homicides - and even many of these shootings could be prevented if the gun industry changed its business practices. Unfortunately, the gun industry refuses to recognize its responsibility to make its products safer, choosing instead to place the sole burden on the user - even when that user is a four-year-old child.

The gun industry manufactures and markets the only widely available consumer products designed to kill. Unfortunately, thanks to the power of the gun lobby, the gun industry also manufactures and markets the only widely available product for which there are no consumer product safety standards. In fact, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was created by Congress in 1972 to protect the public against unreasonable risk of injury associated with consumer products, guns were specifically exempted from the CPSC's jurisdiction. The CPSC monitors safety standards for all manner of consumer goods - from clothing to toys to lawn mowers - but not guns.

Nor does this responsibility belong to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The ATF has jurisdiction over the commerce of guns, such as licensing of dealers, standards for purchasers, and regulating sales and transfers, but it does not and cannot set manufacturing safety standards for firearms.

As a result, there are more safety standards governing the manufacture of a toy gun or for a teddy bear than there are for a real gun. The only standards a gun manufacturer has to comply with are ones the manufacturer sets for itself. And unfortunately, there are far too many gun makers who don't care if their products are poorly made, lack basic safety features, or pose an unreasonable risk to the public. The industry does not care because it doesn't have to:  there are no laws which require it to make sure its products are not unnecessarily dangerous.

Moreover, the gun industry has been irresponsible in the way it markets and sells its products, failing to maintain standards for distributors which would prevent gun trafficking, misleading consumers about the use of guns in self-defense, and deliberately marketing products in such a way as to attract criminals.

The Answer Is Gun Industry Reform

Because of the inherently dangerous nature of its products, the gun industry has a special responsibility to take into account the public's health and safety in conducting its business activities. There are steps that the gun industry can and should take which would reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries in our society. The Brady Campaign and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence seek to change industry practices which contribute directly to gun-related violence - both criminal and unintentional. These practices include all aspects of the business, from design and manufacturing standards to marketing and advertising strategies to sales practices.

Gun industry reform includes the following:

• Distribution and Sales Practices: Stemming the Flow to the Illegal Market

Virtually every gun on the illegal market is first acquired from the manufacturer by a federally licensed gun dealer as part of a legal transaction. Guns then enter the illegal market in several ways:  by theft from dealers who lack adequate security systems; in bulk purchases by gun traffickers or straw purchasers who re-sell them on the streets to criminals; or in purchases by prohibited purchasers from gun dealers who either knowingly or negligently fail to check the purchaser's identification adequately. Guns are also supplied to the illegal market through gun shows, where it is easy for prohibited purchasers and gun traffickers to find each other and where the unregulated sale of firearms through private sales is common.

It is the responsibility of the industry, from the manufacturer to the wholesaler to the retail gun dealer, to work together to limit the opportunity for guns to cross over from the legal to the illegal market. The industry needs to set standards for dealers, train dealers to recognize gun traffickers and straw purchasers, and hold gun stores accountable if they knowingly or recklessly sell guns to criminals.

• Design and Manufacture: Innovating for Safety, Not Lethality

Gun manufacturers are well aware that the lack of safety features in the design of firearms leads to unintentional shootings, suicide, and the criminal use of stolen firearms. Many of these features are readily available and inexpensive, such as a load indicator, which tells the user that the gun is still loaded, or a magazine disconnect safety, which prevents the gun from firing if the ammunition magazine is removed. Even "childproofing" or "personalizing" a gun can be relatively easy and inexpensive by including a locking mechanism that prevents unauthorized users from firing it. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of guns have such features. Even though they know that such features would reduce gun injuries and deaths, gun manufacturers refuse to make such changes to all of their products. Instead, gun manufacturers have made smaller, more powerful weapons, putting profits ahead of safety.

Gun manufacturers must innovate for safety — only supplying the market with guns that, by design, minimize the risk of unintentional injury, suicide and the criminal utility of a stolen firearm.

• Design and Manufacture: Guns Appropriate for Legitimate Civilian Use

Gun manufacturers have continually designed and supplied to the market firearms which are better suited to criminal than legitimate use. For example, assault weapons and low quality, easily concealable "junk guns", or Saturday Night Specials, have been manufactured without regard to how they might be used — both categories of firearms are disproportionately used in crime. Furthermore, there is simply no legitimate need for cop-killer bullets and mail-order parts which allow someone to assemble an untraceable gun without a serial number, both products of the industry. Because firearms are often used in crime, it is incumbent on gun manufacturers to constantly evaluate the risks to public health and safety of the products they design. The industry must stop supplying the market with guns which are attractive to criminals and which have no legitimate civilian use.

• Advertising: Being Honest about the Risks

The decision to bring a gun into the home should be well-informed. The message conveyed by some advertisements for firearms is that the purchase of a handgun will make a person or home safer. In fact, the opposite is true: guns are rarely used for self-protection and having a gun in the home increases the risk of homicide, suicide and unintentional injury. Furthermore, some manufacturers advertise their products in such a way as to appeal to criminals (such as boasting a fingerprint-resistant finish).

Gun manufacturers and gun sellers must be truthful when advertising their products. Advertisements for firearms should: 1) not make claims which suggest that guns in the home enhance personal security; 2) avoid messages which are likely to make the industry's products more desirable to the criminals or others prone to violent behavior; 3) not be placed in publications with a substantial youth readership; and 4) include warnings about the risks of guns in the home.

How Reform Can Be Achieved

Gun industry reform seeks changes in the conduct of the firearms business which are entirely within the industry's control. Unfortunately, the industry has proved itself unwilling to make these changes voluntarily so strategies to compel the industry to change have begun.

Legislative attempts to reform the gun industry are ongoing at both the federal and state level. Bills have been introduced to place guns under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, ban assault weapons and junk guns, and crack down on negligent dealers. However, at a time when the gun lobby is able to block gun control efforts in the legislatures, the best chance for reform may be in the courts. Several cities and counties have filed lawsuits against the gun industry to recover damages for the cost of gun violence stemming from the industry's negligence. The true goal of these lawsuits is not to recover money, however, but to change the industry itself.