New York City is taking steps toward requiring gun stores to display graphic warnings about the dangers of keeping guns in the home. Under a bill introduced by City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, a Democrat, the city’s 14 gun stores would have to put up signs advising prospective customers that gun ownership heightens their risk of homicide, suicide, and accidental shootings, the Trace reports. The bill mandates that the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene design the signs to feature provocative imagery, like a child reaching into an opened drawer containing a firearm. Gun stores would also have to display the telephone numbers for two hotlines that help people with feelings of distress and depression. Any violation of the requirements could result in a $5,000 fine. Bottcher filed the bill in September. Eighteen other city councilmembers have signed on to co-sponsor the measure as of November 25.
Carl Wilson, Bottcher’s chief of staff, said the bill was inspired by foreign cigarette packaging, which carries images including rotting teeth and gums, cancer-ridden lungs, and premature babies to dissuade people from smoking. “We felt that there is no other consumer product without a visual warning that is as dangerous as guns, so this seemed like an appropriate fit,” Wilson said. Other types of businesses have long been required to display warning signs about the products they sell. Liquor stores, for example, have to advise customers about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. Wilson said that if Bottcher’s bill passes, New York would become the first municipality in the country to extend that requirement — visually — to gun stores.
“This bill is definitely a priority of the council members,” he said. “The hope is that having a municipality as large as New York with this type of policy position, it would be replicated in other municipalities, in the region, and perhaps the country.”
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