The study examined surveys done in 2002 by health departments in 50 states and in the District of Columbia asking households to answer questions about gun ownership and storage practices.

About one-third of all US homes contain at least one firearm, said the report, although the prevalence of household firearms varied significantly from 11% in New Jersey to 63 % in Wyoming. In Iowa, 44% of households reported having a firearm, and over 10,000 children were shown to be living in homes where guns are stored unlocked and loaded.

The states with the highest percentage of children living in homes with unlocked and loaded firearms were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Iowa is one of 18 states that have a safe storage requirement for guns on the books. Ideally the law is designed to limit a child’s access to and use of firearms in the home. In most cases, it’s feel good legislation.

In Iowa, an adult can only be found negligent if two standards are met:

1. There is reason to believe that a minor under the age of 14 is likely to gain access to the firearm.
   
2. The minor publicly displays the firearm unlawfully or kills or injures someone with it.

The crime is only punishable as a misdemeanor.

This is the equivalent of a seatbelt law that is only enforced after a crash has taken place. It’s just a tap on the hand to someone already lying in a hospital bed.

But of course, that’s not the seatbelt law. Instead, the law encourages us to wear our seatbelts at all times because if we’re caught driving down the street without one, we’ll pay the price. It doesn’t react to disaster- it encourages us to prevent one.

Every year, about 1,400 children are killed and five times as many are injured with firearms in the United States. It’s not school shootings or other public shootouts that claim the lives of most of these victims. Ninety percent of fatal firearm injuries involving children occur within the victim’s home or the home of a friend. In fact, 40% of firearm incidents involving children 14 and younger occur in a room where a firearm is stored. The reason is obvious; the home is where the guns are.

Admittedly, safe storage laws are difficult to enforce, but that challenge doesn’t excuse or justify weak legislation. To encourage safe storage practices, other states have taken these steps:

• Require gun dealers to post signs warning gun owners that they may be prosecuted if they leave their guns where children can access them.
• Eliminated the requirement that an incident must occur before an adult can be prosecuted.
• Broadened the law to include all firearms, both loaded and unloaded
• Increased the penalty to a felony

A gun in the home, especially one that is stored unlocked and unloaded, encourages disaster, and our laws do absolutely nothing to prevent it. It’s time our laws take an active role in keeping our children alive, instead of simply reacting to their deaths.