U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Broken Promises: The Failure of the Trigger Lock "Deal" Between the Gun Industry and the White House

NCJ Number
183544
Date Published
October 1998
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the 1997 voluntary agreement between the Clinton Administration and some gun manufacturers to supply child safety devices with new guns concludes that the gun industry has broken its promises and that legislation is needed that includes minimum safety standards for locks, plus enforceable requirements that all guns have locks.
Abstract
The agreement stymied legislative proposals to mandate that all new handguns be sold with safety devices. However, a subsequent survey of wholesale gun distributors and retail gun dealers and site visits to gun stores revealed that 16 of the 20 handgun manufacturers that promised to include safety devices with their guns have apparently not done so. The main flaws in the agreement were the lacks of a written version of the agreement, a mandate, participation of firearm distributors or dealers, monitoring, quality standards, and enforcement. Real progress toward reducing gun death and injury should cover all entities in the chain of distribution and include enforcement provisions and other specific features. Appended survey instrument and reprint of advertisement of the American Shooting Sports Council, Inc.