Blumenthal Chairs Hearing on Safe Gun Storage
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee, chaired a hearing today, “Stop Gun Violence: Safe Storage.” During his opening remarks, Blumenthal cited the hundreds of accidental shootings and firearm suicides every year as an urgent call to action to establish a national standard for safe gun storage.
“Safe storage laws save lives. It’s that simple. Safe storage laws are needed to protect our nation's children. Eight children every day are unintentionally injured or killed due to an unsecured gun in the home. Let me repeat that. Eight children every day in the greatest country in the history of the world, are killed unintentionally or injured by a gun unsafely stored in a home,” Blumenthal said in his opening remarks.
“There is no question that guns should be safely stored. On all sides of this issue there's a consensus. The disagreement is only whether there should be a law requiring it. My colleagues, the groups on all sides agree that it should be done. The opponents just don't want anyone to tell them to do it. They agree that gun owners responsibly should keep their guns safely stored. They just don't want a mandate.”
“But we know this issue is one of public safety where we always, when it's a matter of life and death, accept legal requirement. Air bags, seat belts, everybody agrees: a matter of public safety. And that's why we require them. Keeping prescription drugs out of the hands of children; we agree that it should be done and we have laws requiring child-proof containers.”
Today, Blumenthal and U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) introduced legislation directing the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to establish safety standards for firearm locks and firearm safes.
Blumenthal and Murphy have also introduced legislation named for the son of Kristin Song, who testified today, to create federal requirements for safe gun storage and strong penalties for any violations. Under Ethan’s Law, gun owners would be required to secure their firearms in a “secure gun storage or safety device” if a minor is likely to gain access to the firearm without permission, or if a resident of the dwelling cannot legally possess a firearm. The bill also includes incentives for states to pass, and enforce compliance of, their own safe gun storage laws.
The full text of Blumenthal’s opening remarks is copied below.
We’re here this afternoon for our third hearing on another critical issue facing our country involved in stopping the epidemic of gun violence that claims more than 100 lives every day in the United States of America.
In our first two hearings, we covered “red flag” laws and “ghost” guns and now we’re turning to safe storage.
Ethan’s Law, which I introduced in this Congress, would be a vital step forward toward stopping unintentional shootings that occur every day in this country. In fact, nearly every day there is an unintentional shooting by a child.
Last month, in Texas, in Houston, a 3-year-old accidentally shot and killed his 8-month-old brother. Last January, police in Murray, Utah reported that a 3-year-old was accidentally shot in the head when he woke up before his parents, climbed onto a counter, and started playing with a gun. In both of these cases, the gun was unsecured.
In the worst of these kinds of tragedies, someone loses a life. In many, the shooter, a child, has to live the rest of their life knowing they killed someone, frequently a close family member. Those shootings tear apart families every day in America.
In addition to the unintentional shootings, there are the suicides – 700 of them every [year] involving children dying by gun suicide, often using guns belonging to a family member. The risk of youth suicide is far greater when a gun is accessible. In fact, one study found that the best indicator of a state’s youth suicide rate is “household gun ownership” and we will hear more about that issue from our witnesses today.
Securing firearms also will reduce firearm shooting in our schools. Roughly 75 percent of gunfire on school grounds involve a shooter who has obtained a weapon at a home, in the home of a friend or a relative, and we know about that phenomenon in Connecticut all too well from the Sandy Hook massacre.
Safe storage laws save lives. It's that simple. Safe storage laws are needed to protect our nation's children. Eight children every day are unintentionally injured or killed due to an unsecured gun in the home. Let me repeat that. Eight children every day in the greatest country in the history of the world, are killed unintentionally or injured by a gun unsafely stored in a home.
Forty percent of households with guns are unsafely stored. Nearly one-quarter of parents whose children admitted handling guns didn't know their kids had done so. And the stark fact is there is no way to undo the damage. The death and tragedies that result once a gun is fired, whether it's unsafely stored in a gun in the first place.
Today we'll hear from Kristin Song about the enduring and permanent pain and loss an unsecured firearm can cause. She is joined by her husband Mike, and her story of her loss of their 15-year-old son Ethan to an accidental shooting with an unsecured gun I think will move the nation.
In 2019, heeding their heartfelt call to action, Connecticut enacted Ethan’s Law with bipartisan support to require that gun owners safely and securely store their firearms. To Kristin and Mike, I just want to say we're not done. We will not be done until we pass Ethan’s Law in the United States Congress, and your being here today means the world. We're going to do everything we can to pass Ethan’s Law and I ask my colleagues across the aisle as well as on our side to help us do it.
Of particular interest, I hope to my colleagues, are the 33 states including Texas that have already adopted some form of safe storage access law. It's on the books in those states. It varies from state to state, but what we need is a national standard now.
And there is a reason that those states have passed those laws. Because they work. They work to prevent deaths and injury. “Unloaded firearms can be secured with a firearm locking device to make them safe, inoperable. Unloaded firearms also can be stored in a lock cabinet, safe, firearm vault, or storage case.” That's a quote from the National Shooting Sports Foundation instruction to gun owners. Thank you Mr. Bartozzi for being here today and for the program that NSSF sponsors.
“That strong boxes and security cases are inexpensive and give quick access to firearms in a defensive situation,” and “gun safes are the most secure storage option.” That is from the NRA in August of 2020, in an article entitled “Five Tips To Safely Store Your Gun.”
There is no question that guns should be safely stored. On all sides of this issue there's a consensus. The disagreement is only whether there should be a law requiring it. My colleagues, the groups on all sides agree that it should be done. The opponents just don't want anyone to tell them to do it. They agree that gun owners responsibly should keep their guns safely stored. They just don't want a mandate.
But we know this issue is one of public safety where we always, when it's a matter of life and death, accept legal requirement. Air bags, seat belts, everybody agrees: a matter of public safety. And that's why we require them. Keeping prescription drugs out of the hands of children. We agree that it should be done and we have laws requiring child-proof containers.
Some say that safe storage laws are unconstitutional but they've been upheld across the country. Some say that safe storage will make it impossible to use firearms in self-defense. But modern safes with digital or biometric controls make it as easy to unlock as it is your phone.
We can disagree about the details. But the recognition is unanimous, or virtually, so that we must work together to pass a measure at the federal level – unanimous among people who believe in gun safety and stopping gun violence. Because these injuries and deaths are preventable if we choose to act. We must act. And I again thank you for being here today. I turn to the Ranking Member.
-30-