The Pediatric Health Safe Storage Bill, HB 161
The Pediatric Health Safe Storage Bill, HB 161, actually has a hearing scheduled March 16 at 8 am, 506 Coverdell Legislative Office Building. This bill establishes the offense of making a firearm accessible to a child and requires safe storage of firearms, among other things. The bill has six (6) sponsors, all Democrats. They are Representatives Michelle Au, Mary Margaret Oliver, Carl Gilliard, Yasmin Neal, Scott Holcomb, and Omari Crawford. Gun safety should not be a partisan issue. Safe firearms storage should not be a partisan issue, yet it is. Safe storage would help to keep children and the community safer. Surely, in an era when guns are the #1 cause of death for children and teens in the US, both sides of the aisle could and should support a bill that calls for potentially lethal firearms to be stored safely away from easy access by children. This has been a Democratic priority for several years. The bill is assigned to the House Public Safety and Homeland Security 2A Subcommittee.
Please contact the subcommittee members to express your support for the bill. If you are represented by one of the 6 sponsors, contact them to say thank you for sponsoring a bill designed to make children and our community safer.