(a) Definitions.
(1) “Firearm” means any deadly weapon capable of expelling or propelling one or more projectiles by the action of an explosive or combustible propellant.
(2) “Ammunition” means any ammunition cartridge, shell or other device containing explosive or incendiary material and designed and intended to use in any firearm.
(3) “Child” means any person under the age of eighteen years and includes any person between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one years who is of sufficient mental incompetence to have had a legal guardian appointed by the Probate Court.
(4) “Deadly weapon” means any instrument, device or thing capable of inflicting death, and designed or especially adapted for use as a weapon or possessed, carried or used as a weapon.
(b) Access to Firearms and/or Deadly Weapons. Except as provided in subsection (c) hereof no person, including but not limited to a parent or legal guardian, shall store or leave a loaded or unloaded firearm and/or deadly weapon in any place where the person knows, or reasonably should know based on the totality of the circumstances, that a child is able to gain access to it.
(c) Exceptions. Subsection (b) hereof shall not apply when:
(1) A child’s access to a firearm and/or deadly weapon is under the supervision or control of a responsible adult for purposes of lawful hunting or instruction in firearm and/or deadly weapon safety, care, handling or marksmanship;
(2) A child has access to a firearm and/or deadly weapon as the result of an unlawful entry into the place in which the firearm and/or deadly weapon was found;
(3) A child obtains a firearm and/or deadly weapon in a lawful act of self- defense or defense of another person or persons within a domicile;
(4) A child who, without permission of the lawful possessor of a firearm and/or deadly weapon, obtains the firearm and/or deadly weapon from the possessor’s body.
(d) Responsibility of Firearms Dealers and/or Deadly Weapon Dealers.
(1) When selling any firearm, a licensed firearm dealer shall offer to sell or give the purchaser a trigger lock or similar device which prevents the firearm from discharging.
(2) At every purchase counter in every store, shop or sales outlet, licensed firearms dealers shall conspicuously post the following warning in block letters, not less than one inch in height: “IT IS UNLAWFUL TO STORE OR LEAVE A FIREARM AND/OR DEADLY WEAPON WHERE CHILDREN CAN OBTAIN ACCESS.” The same warning shall be distributed to each firearm purchaser at the time of the sale of a firearm.
(e) Penalties. Whoever violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree. (Ord. 52-95. Passed 5-9-95.)