Co-Sponsorship Memo Details

Millions of children live in homes with easily accessible firearms. A 2018 study found that 4.6 million minors in the U.S. live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm. In fact, most children know where their parents keep their guns — even if their parents think otherwise.
 
From 2005 to 2014, roughly 20,000 American minors were killed or seriously injured in accidental shootings; the majority of those killed in these tragic accidents were aged 12 or younger. Child access prevention (CAP) laws are an important tool for reducing these preventable shootings. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have enacted child access prevention laws – Pennsylvania isn’t one of them.
 
Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is not immune from what can happen when firearms are not safely stored. In July 2017, Cosmo DiNardo lured four young men to his house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and murdered them with a family member’s firearm that he was not permitted to possess. However, because the Commonwealth currently has no requirements regarding the safe storage of firearms, no member of his family was charged for permitting him access to the firearm used in the murders.
 
The lack of such requirements leaves our children unacceptably vulnerable to murders, fatal accidents, suicides, and school shootings. Therefore, I plan to introduce a package of legislation to require that firearm owners take the steps necessary to help ensure that their guns do not fall into the wrong hands.
 
Proposal #1 - My first bill would require gun owners to safely store firearms if a person who cannot legally possess a firearm lives in the owner’s residence.
 
Proposal #2 - My second bill would require gun owners to safely store firearms when not under direct control of the owner.
 
I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this package of legislation to make our communities safer. Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you have any questions, please contact Cory Smith at 717-783-8235.