Saturday, April 11, 1998 | 2:03 a.m.
Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and John Chafee, R-R.I., have called for mandatory "safe storage" laws for your personal firearms. Mandatory "safe storage" might be better named the "Burglar Protection Act of 1998," as it would mean that your personal-protection firearms would be useless to you if you ever faced a violent criminal attacker.
The only person who would be "safe" would be the criminal. Furthermore, how would such a law be enforced without violating the Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches of your home? While safety programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle help to prevent firearms accidents for kids, the Durbin/Chafee proposal could only be enforced after the fact, when tragedy has already struck.
These senators, opponents of freedom and personal protection, have focused their efforts on grabbing the media spotlight created by Jonesboro.
If this nonsense riles you more than a little, protest to your elected representatives, ask them to support the Constitution, back up your rights to keep and bear arms, join the NRA -- they speak loudly with a straight-arrow voice, and we can't do it alone, and it does need to be done!
Don Pinson
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