When I was growing up, I was raised in a house with two smokers. I saw tobacco products most of my life on a daily basis. I distinctly remember the surgeon general's warning about the hazards of tobacco use.
And the truth is that there's really no way to use these products without there being some health risks. There are no safety measures one can take to not risk lung or mouth cancer.
So when I see what New York is doing, I have some issues.
Gun stores will be required to post warnings that purchasing a firearm significantly raises the risk of suicide, fatal accidents to children and lethal domestic violence in their homes, according to one of three bills signed into law Tuesday.
The two other gun-control bills signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul would ban "pistol converters," which are devices that convert semiautomatic pistols in machine guns, and would create better monitoring of sales of firearms and ammunition.
The legislation that will require warning signs at gun stores is effective in December.
"Warning," the signs must state, "Access to a weapon or firearm in the home significantly increases the risk of suicide, death during domestic disputes, and/or unintentional deaths to children, household members and others. If you or a loved one is experiencing distress and/or depression, call the national suicide lifeline at 988."
The signs must be posted where firearms are sold, displayed or delivered and placed at the entrance to the site and in at least one other area where sales are made, under the law sponsored by Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and Assemb. Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx)
Except, the only thing that raises the risk of any of that is generally either carelessness or the intentional act of another person.
The mere existence of a gun in the house has no magical effect on anyone. Each and every one of these claims is the result of what an individual chooses to do.
That alone makes it different from warning labels on things like tobacco or warning pregnant women to steer clear of alcohol. Those are automatically harmful to some degree or another, though how much or how long it takes might be up for debate.
Further, there really aren't benefits to using tobacco and while I love a good whiskey, especially bourbon, the reality here is that
Guns, however, are life-saving devices. People buy them to protect themselves and people use them for that each day.
I haven't even started on the fact that many of these claims are predicated on bad studies that didn't differentiate between lawful gun ownership and criminal possession. There's a big difference in lifestyle between your average gun owner and the criminal underclass, including the tendency toward violence in the first place.
But we need to remember that none of this is actually intended to inform people or even keep them safe. This is all about trying to keep people from wanting guns. It's about trying to scare us away from buying a firearm, all because the more we rely on the government for our safety, the more infringements on our rights we can be convicted to tolerate.
That's what all of this is really about and I find it absolutely disgusting.
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