Firearm patents addressed safety

Tens of millions of firearms in America lack critical safety features. U.S. gun patents dating back a century confirm that gun makers were long aware of the danger and had developed ways to fix the most glaring problems. But many of these safety features have never been implemented on a wide scale.

This article is a simple timeline covering the period from 1908 (chamber-loaded indicator patented) to 1922 (last noted patent, one of 5 dealing with magazine disconnect safeties). What are the most notable parts of this article? Simple: firearms with these safety devices have been around and on the market since 1908.

In some cases (such as the Beretta case in California) those features don't prevent injuries, and the victims (who broke the rules of gun safety) sue anyway. In others, lawsuits are brought because a manufacturer failed to prevent their customer from behaving irresponsibly with their firearm. It is hard to believe that mandatory safety features are a better answer than training gun owners to handle their firearms safely.

No safety feature is perfectly reliable, but a safe gun owner can keep his gun safely even when those safety features are not present, or fail. Those who depend on safety features to protect them from unsafe behaviors are an accident waiting to happen -- just as soon as they can devise a new stupidity to engage in.