ICYMI Video: At Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Gun Violence Epidemic, Blumenthal & Yale School of Public Health Dean Discuss Safe Storage Laws

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – At a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee titled, “The Gun Violence Epidemic: A Public Health Crisis,” U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke with Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, about the impact of safe storage laws on reducing gun deaths.

“I was very moved by your description and your testimony of the suicide victim that you tried to save – one of your first cases involving suicide by the use of firearms. There are loaded and unlocked guns in the homes of 4.6 million American children, like the son of that law enforcement officer you described,” Blumenthal said. “Could you speak to how secured storage helps reduce suicides or other supposedly accidental shootings?”

“Obviously, youth can’t legally purchase firearms, so they find a parent's firearm, which many of us think is stored safely, but when you actually ask kids, they all know where their parent has stored their firearm, the same way that our kids all know where all of their birthday presents are stored,” responded Dr. Ranney. “And, studies have shown they actually can access it quite quickly. States that have put safe storage laws in place see a 20 to 25 percent decrease in child firearm fatalities.”

In January 2023, Blumenthal, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced Ethan’s Law, legislation requiring gun owners to safely and securely store their firearms. The bill is named in honor of Ethan Song, a teenager from Guilford, Connecticut who was tragically killed in 2018 by an unsecured gun in a neighbor’s home. Ethan’s Law would create federal requirements for safe gun storage and establish strong penalties for any violations.

Blumenthal and Dr. Ranney also discussed the benefits of violence intervention programs, like the Yale New Haven Hospital's Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program. Speaking about a similar program based in Chicago, Dr. Ranney observed, “rigorous research has shown that the program correlates with decreased arrests for violent crime as well as decreased likelihood of participants being shot.”

Video of Blumenthal’s exchange with Dr. Ranney is available here. The full text of their exchange is below:

Senator Blumenthal: Thank you to the Chairman and Ranking Member for having this hearing. It may seem repetitive, but we need to continue this work because we face a public health crisis that is only expanding, as you have demonstrated, and we all know, simply measured in deaths and injuries. I've been working on it since the early 1990's when I first became Attorney General in the state of Connecticut. We advocated then for an assault weapons ban, which was passed and challenged in court. I defended it as Attorney General, and we have expanded in Connecticut, on the types of gun violence prevention laws that we have, showing that these laws actually work. They reduce deaths and injuries. Assault weapon bans, background checks, Ethan’s Law, laws providing for safe storage, and other kinds of measures like the red flag statute; Connecticut was the first in the nation to adopt it.

So, if we take the public health approach that Dr. Ranney has advocated, and we are data-driven, as the medical professionals in this room wearing the white coats use every day, respecting facts, making decisions based on science, I think that we will continue to build on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which we passed, and showed that we can defeat the gun lobby; that the NRA and its allies are not implacable and vulnerable folks.

Dr. Ranney, in your testimony, you mentioned the importance of violent crime as an indicator of potential additional gun violence. I'm struck by the statistic that 41 percent of patients treated for violent injury are reinjured within five years. In other words, there is a cycle here, there is a repetitive phenomenon. I think we can and we should ensure that more victims of violent crimes do not become repeat victims. And, the Yale New Haven hospital’s violence intervention program has been very effective in a number of ways in preventing the kinds of repeat injury after trauma. In your firsthand experience, can you describe how these programs work in practice, and how we can maybe have some common ground in supporting violence intervention programs like the one that Yale New Haven has in practice right now?

Dr. Ranney: We are tremendously grateful for the Yale New Haven Health Violence Intervention program, which was started in 2020. I also sit on the board of the nonviolence institute in Providence, Rhode Island, and have worked closely with folks in Chicago and elsewhere in community violence intervention programs. These are some of the programs with growing data behind them.

I’ll particularly highlight the CRED Program led by former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Chicago. They provide life skills training, mental health support, as well as community mentorship. And, rigorous research has shown that the program correlates with decreased arrests for violent crime as well as decreased likelihood of participants being shot. Similar statistics are available from programs in Missouri, from programs in D.C., and from elsewhere across the country.

Again, because of those limitations in the public health approach, which I outline at the beginning, we do still have limited data on how effective they are. We don't have those formal randomized controlled trials, but this combination of providing a caseworker, mental health support, and substance abuse treatment when needed, and helping getting folks into safe housing, help them get education, has a demonstrated effect on both future injury, but also long-term success.

Blumenthal: I was very moved by your description and your testimony of the suicide victim that you tried to save – one of your first cases involving suicide by the use of firearms. There are loaded and unlocked guns in the homes of 4.6 million American children, like the son of that law enforcement officer you described. I've been an advocate of Ethan's Law, passed in the Connecticut legislature, and introduced here in Congress along with Representative Rosa DeLauro on the House side, which would prohibit unsecured storage of firearms. Could you speak to how secured storage helps reduce suicides or other supposedly accidental shootings?

Ranney: Absolutely. So, the majority of youth suicides, and school shootings perpetrated by youth, including an article that just came out today in JAMA, are committed with a family member’s firearm. Obviously, youth can’t legally purchase firearms, so they find a parent's firearm, which many of us think is stored safely, but when you actually ask kids, they all know where their parent has stored their firearm, the same way that our kids all know where all of their birthday presents are stored.

And, studies have shown they actually can access it quite quickly. States that have put safe storage laws in place see a 20 to 25 percent decrease in child firearm fatalities. But I will emphasize, the legislation alone is not enough. It needs to be matched with community engagement, with education. Many of the firearm groups I work with are tremendous advocates for safer storage of firearms. There are ways to do this, again, without abrogating gun owner rights.

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