Smith
I think a federal law should be created, all guns MUST have trigger locks in place at all times.
So a kid gets a unsecured gun and shoots someone, the gun owner should do 5 years mandatory sentence and lose everything.
soon things would be much safer, no more crying grandpas on tv about their grandchild going to jail after using their gun to kill a neighbor kid by accident.
altogether preventable
I'll tell you what -- you first. Put trigger locks on all your guns, then put a sign in your front yard advising all and sundry that you have them in place. Hope nobody ever breaks into your house.
Why only five?
Oddly enough, this wasn't really much of a problem forty, or a hundred, years ago, when gun ownership was more common and widespread.
Most easily preventable by education. The National Rifle Association is a leader in this area, with their "Eddie the Eagle" safety program for elementary-school kids. Eddie Eagle says, if you see a gun --
1) STOP! Don't touch it! 2) Leave the area. 3) Tell an adult.As soon as my kids were old enough to understand, I made sure to tell them that the guns are not toys, and never to be touched unsupervised -- and *also* told them that *whenever* they got curious about how the guns worked, or wanted to see or hold or touch one, all they needed to do was ask, and I'd get one out of the [locked] cabinet so we could look at it *together*. That takes the mystery out of it, and most of the allure of forbidden fruit, too. Once or twice a year, they'd ask to look at them, and I always stopped whatever I was doing to show them. My youngest (now nearly 16) still asks to look at the handguns from time to time.
I further made a point of telling them that the guns on TV are not real guns, and the guns in my cabinet *are* real guns, and real guns make things real dead. I made sure they understood the difference, too, by taking them hunting with me. Conveniently, where we lived at the time, we had a hay field right outside the house, jamb full of rabbits. And they saw at a very early age (like 3 or 4 years) that it's not like Elmer Fudd shooting Bugs Bunny: when Dad shoots a rabbit, it's *dead*. It doesn't laugh, or jump up and ask "what's up, Doc?". It's dead. It just lays there. And we pick it up, take it back to the house, clean it, cut it up, cook it, and eat it.
It's all about education.
Not to necessarily disagree with the rest of your post, but it *was* a problem forty, or a hundred years ago. My family bible attests to that.
As well as others'. Gun accidents were common.
Banty
Home insurance is required in my mortgage and my old company tripled prices so I spent a couple of months trying to find cheaper insurance.
I eventually found a new carrier but I now have a new appreciation of having insurance available.
My point is that you should do what they say and be nice about it. It will increase the value of your property as well as keep them from cancelling your policy.
Allstate did a driveby inspection of my house, saw moss on the roof, and cancelled my policy.
There is a bit of a story - I was in the process of buying the house and selected Allstate. Before we closed on the house, they did this. I told them to kiss mine and went with Travellers. Travellers had no problem with the moss, but suggested I remove it to protect the roof (which I did). They sent out a local contractor who walked through the house, measured it, took pictures, and left. No problems. I can't believe Allstate didn't so much as give me the courtesy of a phone call or try to talk to me about it - they flat cancelled the policy. Guess who I will never do business with again?
Anyone have a insurance company they would recommend for home owners insurance? I've never had any claims, but I'm not sure I'm getting the best deal with Travellers.
I have a wood stove, but it's properly installed and I had the permit from the installation, plus it's fairly new. My insurance company was OK with that.
"mm" wrote
Heh, is that your house? Actually, it wouldn't surprise me at all if that would get you cancelled. People die in houses like you describe. All that combustible stuff and firefighters can't move around to get to the fire, so it would be a total loss. If you were an insurance company, would you risk whatever thousands of dollars for a little premium money?
nancy
I have The Hartford. Never had any inspections in 25 years in this house. In fact, I've never had any inspections in 42 years of home ownership.
...
If you're not in a major metro area, check into your state Farm Bureau. If you can qualify, they're typically at least reasonable price-wise and service/coverage likely to be excellent. Limitations in many locations are still takes sizable property as opposed subdivision, but other areas have relaxed their requirements as state insurance rules have changed to try to allow more competition...
Statistically, swimming pools are 200x as dangerous as guns ;)
This has more to do with changing standards of legal liability than with changes in the insurance business. A hundred years ago, few juries would find you liable if some idiot shot himself with your gun.
Just curious, did you verify it wasn't some scam by some local inspector?
tom @
Just Joshin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
....or a scam by criminals. Our town notified the residents not allow anyone into their homes from people going door to door pretending to be from the assessors office.
Oh my, that scarey. We have a standing rule for even the police in my house. Unless it CLEARLY looks like an officer at the door (car, uniform, etc) call our Non Emergency number is called first before unlocking the door.
RCN is our cable company here, one day, I heard noises around my house. I went out to see what was happening, and some person was removing parts of my cable hook up on a Sunday afternoon. I confronted the person, and quickly was addressed by three men saying they had permission to do what they were doing, althought no one could explain why they were stripping parts, but they were clear that I would have NO problems if I agreed. I quickly retreated into my house. After several phone calls, it was a sunday, RCN said they find out there was work schedule, but were confused about the timing and information the contractors told me.
So now, call first, then confront later.
tom
Nanny-state refers to protecting us from ourselves, and I can give you many examples of how I hate that. Seat-belt laws, helmet laws for non-children, anti-smoking laws for bars, anti-transfat laws.
But it's already the obligation of the state to protect us from others.
Yes, insurance companies are doing this more and more.
I have rental properties. They do an inspection of at least one building a year at renewal time, even my one family houses.
If they don't like something, they will warn you to get it fixed within a certain time period. If you don't, they'll cancel the policy.
I'm curious. Is your place in an urban environment?
Doug
Actually, it's settled constitutional law that the state doesn't HAVE to protect you from anyone.
And you see where that gets us, when we rely on individusala includng the many who don't give a damn about who gets hurt because of them. Drunken drivers, drunks who start fights in bars so that people actually get hurt, people who leave guns around so that their kids shoot visitors, or their own brother or sister. Etc. Etc.
I don't know the best exact boundary for what the law should say about gun locks, but I know that preaching individual responsibility when we already know how many people aren't responsible at all is a bunch of crap.
I didn't say the Constitution required it in every case. I said it is already the obligation of the state to protect us from others.
I hope you can see the difference.
...
Well, there's the point made for me precisely--all the laws against drunk driving, etc., don't really mean much do they, unless people take the personal responsibility to not drink and drive. You can't legislate morality and you can't legislate responsibility any more successfully. You can, otoh, with diligence behave responsibily yourself and teach your children and others you come in contact with the rudiments of gun safety and how to act responsibly with them. That effort on one's part includes properly storing them to preclude acquisition of them by unauthorized parties, of course.
You may wish laws were effective in changing behavior, but we have ample evidence that isn't particularly effective, too. How many laws did the guy I heard of on the radio today break in committing his offense(s)? They didn't help much, did they?
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