The Limits Of NC Gun Storage Mandates

First up today is a story out of my state of residence, North Carolina.  We have, in NC a gun storage mandate.  Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms has the story at NC Appeals Court Rules Gun Storage Law Doesn't Apply to Unloaded Firearms.

A North Carolina appellate court has thrown out a woman's conviction on manslaughter and other charges, ruling that she didn't violate the state's gun storage law because the firearm accessed by her teenage son and a friend was unloaded when it was left unsecured.

According to the Tulsa World:

"On July 2018, Cable's son had another boy — both of them 16 years old — over at his house for the night, according to case documents. At 2 a.m., her son went in the bedroom of Cable and her husband as they were sleeping and retrieved an unloaded .44-caliber Magnum revolver that authorities say Cable possessed and a box of ammunition, both laying on top of an open gun safe."

"The son showed his friend the revolver and placed it and the ammo on the top of a gun safe in his bedroom. The friend then asked the son if he wanted to play Russian roulette. The friend quickly put a bullet in the revolver, pointed it at himself and fired, dying instantly, the documents said."

Edwards continues

What a nightmare for everyone involved. I'm sure that Cable and her husband trusted their teen to be responsible around firearms, given that her husband is a gunsmith. Unfortunately, it sounds like their kid succumbed to peer pressure, and a life was needlessly lost as a result.

While North Carolina law states, in part, that "any person who resides in the same premises as a minor, owns or possesses a firearm, and stores or leaves the firearm (i) in a condition that the firearm can be discharged and (ii) in a manner that the person knew or should have known that an unsupervised minor would be able to gain access to the firearm, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor", the appellate court ruled that an unloaded firearm can't be discharged, and therefore doesn't fall under the storage mandate.

I agree that this is a great tragedy all around. And the friend's parents no doubt want someone to blame. But the Appeals Court here has found correctly. No doubt Grass Roots North Carolina is watching this case closely as this is likely to spark the legislature to tighten the language. But gun storage mandates should not be one size fits all propositions. For instance, what about people who have no children? Should they be subject to a law that is designed to protect children? After all, there are attractive nuisance laws already on the books that could also apply in this case.