INDIANAPOLIS – Trusted adults left firearms in their purses, between couch cushions, in their dressers, or otherwise unsecured and loaded. Curious teenagers and toddlers alike found the weapons, killing or injuring themselves and others.
Recent reports found that Indiana had the third-highest number of unintentional shootings by children so far in 2023, with nine children dead and another 18 injured — according to gun safety advocate Everytown.
The unprecedented surge in youth gun violence has left leaders scrambling for answers but one particular common factor prompted a Democratic lawmaker to revive a failed attempt to promote safe firearm storage and penalize adults who fail to do so with children at home.
Rep. Mitch Gore, D-Indianapolis, said the bill’s details aren’t yet finalized but “would specifically make it unlawful to leave a firearm unattended when it’s likely that a child could gain access to it.”
Ways to secure a firearm could include disassembling or removing a critical component so it can’t fire or locking it up — either in a safe or lockbox or using a cable lock.
“The idea, of course, is to prevent these tragedies that we’re seeing more and more where children access an unsecured firearm and then use it to injure themselves or another,” Gore said.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the U.S., prompting action from the Biden administration. This week, the White House invited 100 Democratic state lawmakers to discuss ways to reduce gun violence with an emphasis on safe storage.
Among them were three of Gore’s colleagues: Rep. Ragen Hatcher, of Gary; Rep. Maureen Bauer, of South Bend; and Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, of Fishers.
In the Everytown analysis, Indiana’s death rate fell behind only Texas and Florida, which have four times and three times the Hoosier state’s population, respectively. Shootings involved those as old as 17 and as young as three, spanning the state from Fort Wayne to Evansville.
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