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Americans for Responsible Solutions, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence Partner to Push States to Protect Children from Unintended Shootings

June 25, 2015– Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired combat veteran and NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a new resource today urging state legislators to pass laws that can help protect children from unintended shootings.

The new resource, “ Commonsense Solutions: State Gun Laws to Protect Kids from Unintended Shootings ” is being released as states around the country continue to grapple with the risks and often deadly consequences of children who access improperly secured firearms. Every year, nearly 100 children in the United States die from unintended gun shot wounds. Nearly 1.7 million children and youth under age 18 are living in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms in the United States. Children in the United States are at least 16 times more likely to be killed in unintended shootings than in other advanced countries.

The report outlines the key steps state legislators can take to address shortcomings in federal law and help protect children in their state from unintended shootings. These steps include:

  • Requiring adults to keep guns properly locked up or under their immediate control whenever they have a reason to know a child is present or might have access to the area;
  • Requiring gun dealers to ensure that all gun buyers, including buyers of rifles and shotguns, are provided with a gun lock or other safety device;
  • Ensuring that safety information accompany the sale or transfer of every gun by a licensed gun dealer;
  • Prohibiting adults from allowing children to handle machine guns, even if they are supervised, because of how dangerous these weapons are.

Click here to view the full toolkit.

The resource is the latest joint publication by ARS and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence offering proposals that state legislators around the country can adopt to help reduce gun violence in their communities. Previous toolkits addressed steps legislators can take to protect women and families from gun violence and close loopholes in their background check system for gun sales. 

“Keeping guns locked up and out of reach from children is the commonsense thing to do. Too many children have accidentally shot and killed themselves, family members, or friends simply because a gun wasn’t safely stored. Many of these deaths could have been avoided if there were laws on the books to ensure guns were kept in safe and secure locations inside the home,” said Americans for Responsible Solutions Founder & 501(c)(4) Director Peter Ambler. “We hope that state legislators around the country can seize the opportunity in 2015 to help make our children and communities safer from gun violence.”

“It is unacceptable that American children are 16 times more likely to die from unintended shootings than kids in other countries, especially given that these deaths are so easily preventable,” said Robyn Thomas, Executive Director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Our latest Commonsense Solutions toolkit with ARS gives lawmakers and activists everything they need to adopt simple, lifesaving laws that will keep guns out of the hands of children.”

Americans for Responsible Solutions was founded by Congresswoman Giffords and Captain Kelly in January 2013 in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to find sensible ways to reduce gun violence and encourage elected officials to enact responsible firearms policies that protect the Second Amendment.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly known as the Legal Community Against Violence) was founded after the 1993 shooting in San Francisco that left eight dead. Today, it is the only national law center focused on providing comprehensive legal expertise in support of gun violence prevention and the promotion of smart gun laws that save lives. As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the Law Center is dedicated to preventing the loss of lives caused by gun violence by providing trusted, in-depth legal expertise and information on America’s gun laws.