A couple in Nevada is seeking a change to state law after being denied a license to raise foster children due to a regulation that bars foster parents from carrying loaded firearms. Brian Wilson and his wife Valerie applied to become foster parents in 2013.
They were denied because of their refusal to comply with the law that bars families with foster children to be in the presence of operable and loaded weapons, like the Wilsons must carry, because "bad things happen to good people."
A letter to the couple from the Clark County Department of Family Services said, “The applicants stated they would not be able to comply with this regulation if licensed due to having a concealed weapons permit to carry their personal defense weapon on their physical body,” the letter said.
Current rules reportedly require guns and ammunition to be stored separately in secure containers in homes with foster children. The Wilsons’ request for a variance to the current law was denied.
The couple supports a bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R-Las Vegas), that would change Nevada Department of Health and Human Services’ regulations requiring firearms to be unloaded and inoperable any time foster children are present with their foster parents. Fiore, who has an A rating with the NRA, has a fondness of bills that would allow guns to be legally carried in myriad settings like cars, college campuses and now around children who likely have a history of traumatic experiences.
Jill Marano, deputy administrator of the state Division of Child and Family Services, said the agency’s goal is to work with foster parents, but there is a concern about the ability of a child to gain access to a loaded weapon. She opposed the bill in its current form.
Marano said a computer search turned up 16 incidents over the past four months in which children were involved in the accidental discharge of a loaded weapon.
Naturally, Fox News and rags like the Free Beacon are appalled that guns and children do not go well together, as statistics have shown. But they are not that interested in the safety of the children, they're more concerned with keeping Michele Fiore's NRA rating at an A, while enriching death machine merchants.
