Photo: Children's Firearm Safety Alliance
If you live in Sioux Falls and you own a gun, you’d better keep it locked away and out of sight. Councilor Pat Starr is looking to penalize gun owners who leave their weapons in their unlocked cars, because it offers thieves the occasion and the means to carry out other, more violent crimes.
Starr says that the number of incidents where guns have been reported stolen from vehicles is on the rise. Later on, the guns reported missing end up being used to commit other crimes, so the initial gun owner should be held accountable for his share of responsibility.
To put it differently, if you own a gun and you don’t take all the necessary steps to ensure it’s not stolen, you’re partly to blame if it ends up being used to commit another crime. Being a gun owner comes with responsibility, Councilor Starr said at Carnegie Town Hall, as cited by KSFY.
“There were four [incidents] just this weekend, and I don’t know how much clearer we can be without increasing the penalty at some point,” Starr says.
“You have a great responsibility as a gun owner to secure that weapon so that it doesn't get stolen [and] become part of a bigger problem,” he adds. “So should there be a stronger penalty? I'm thinking its something that we have to take a look at. And if it takes a penalty to make you do the right thing, we're approaching that.”
Introducing a penalty might make sense for the Councilor, but it might be harder to accomplish than he’s letting on. There is a South Dakota law that prohibits local governments from using ordinances to restrict the transportation, possession, ownership, manufacture, repair, sale or transfer of firearms. You can see where his penalty would come in violation of that, by forcing owners to keep their guns locked away.
To put it differently, if you own a gun and you don’t take all the necessary steps to ensure it’s not stolen, you’re partly to blame if it ends up being used to commit another crime. Being a gun owner comes with responsibility, Councilor Starr said at Carnegie Town Hall, as cited by KSFY.
“There were four [incidents] just this weekend, and I don’t know how much clearer we can be without increasing the penalty at some point,” Starr says.
“You have a great responsibility as a gun owner to secure that weapon so that it doesn't get stolen [and] become part of a bigger problem,” he adds. “So should there be a stronger penalty? I'm thinking its something that we have to take a look at. And if it takes a penalty to make you do the right thing, we're approaching that.”
Introducing a penalty might make sense for the Councilor, but it might be harder to accomplish than he’s letting on. There is a South Dakota law that prohibits local governments from using ordinances to restrict the transportation, possession, ownership, manufacture, repair, sale or transfer of firearms. You can see where his penalty would come in violation of that, by forcing owners to keep their guns locked away.
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