Below The Radar: The Safe Gun Storage Act

New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- There are a number of ways to try to sneak an attack on our Second Amendment into law. That being said, the one big requirement for politicians – and legislation is to stay under the radar is for the politician to not really grandstand when talking nonsense about our Second Amendment rights.

Put it this way, Charles Schumer may have been known for pushing gun control, but he also has become a means by which many Second Amendment supporters can be motivated to act, whether by writing lawmakers, sending donations to pro-Second Amendment groups like the NRA, SAF, or GOA. This means Schumer’s mouth – and his introduction of legislation – is sometimes a liability for the other side.

If HR 4691, also called the Safe Gun Storage Act had been introduced by Schumer, we’d be seeing red, we’d be burning the phone wires with calls, we’d have piles of letters, and there would probably be so many e-mails that some wireless networks and e-mail servers would have given up the ghost.

But you probably haven’t heard much about this bill. That’s because the Representative who introduced it isn’t known for pushing gun control. Eliot Engel (who introduced the Flamethrowers? Really? Act and the PLEA Act) is better known for his foreign policy work. Hopefully, after learning about this scheme, loyal Ammoland readers can change that.

Now, we’ve dealt with some “safe storage” laws before. More accurately, they make firearms virtually inaccessible for self-defense. Quite frankly, if this was merely just a “safe storage” law, it would be bad enough. Engel, though, has come up with something even worse.

The text of the legislation is a Pandora’s box that sends power away from elected officials… and hands it to unelected bureaucrats. These bureaucrats are at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Now, we’ve discussed other bills that open this door, the TASERS Act and the Gun Suicide Prevention Act.

Those two bills merely were a camel’s nose under the tent. Engel’s bill actually goes further than those two because it now tells the CPSC to develop standards and regulations for gun locks and gun safes. They have 90 days to start the process and it must be done in a year.

This is how Engel will open a Pandora’s box of anti-Second Amendment mischief. Once he has locks and gun safes under CPSC, the argument will then follow that what goes into the gun safes should also be regulated. That is why this bill is so dangerous.

It goes without saying that this bill needs to be stopped. Second Amendment supporters need to contact their Representative and Senators and politely urge them to oppose HR 4691. There is no good that can come from letting the CSPC get regulatory authority that comes anywhere close to our Second Amendment rights.

About Harold Hutchison

Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.