A topic both sides of gun rights issue can agree on
Groups call for safe storage of firearms, especially in homes
As two children played and hopped along a sofa, a loud bang punctuated the relative silence of a Columbus West Side living room before the shouting began.
“Is that gun powder?” yelled one of three adults after they rushed into the room.
“Where is it?” someone said before a man reached into the couch cushions and another bang followed.
Security camera footage captured the entire January incident, which resulted in burns and temporary hearing loss for the the child who found the gun and unintentionally fired it. But his mom, Lashawndra Allen, realizes just how much worse things could have gone.
“Not every parent is lucky enough to say their child didn’t get hurt in a situation like mine,” Allen told The Dispatch. “If you can avoid another child getting hurt, you want to make sure you speak up about this.”
Unintentional shootings like this have played out 205 times across Ohio since 2015, according to data from Everytown For Gun Safety. Despite being the seventh largest state by population, Ohio is third in the nation, behind only
Texas and Florida, for the number of unintentional shootings by kids.
Columbus, which is Ohio’s largest city, has seen 42 unintentional shootings since 2015, which is more than any other city in the state, data shows.
A possible solution is one of the few things Second Amendment supporters and gun control advocates actually agree on — the need to safely store a firearm, especially in homes where young children live.
But whether it’s a law that puts guns under lock and key, a tax break or education and encouragement is a
debate that’s still raging.
“The results of the research into these laws are very consistent,” said April Zeoli, an associate professor of public health at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. “Child access prevention laws have the most evidence of any firearm law at preventing shootings.”
Research has found that if 20% more households stored guns locked and unloaded, youth firearm suicide and deadly unintentional shootings would decrease by as much as 32%, according to Brady, an organization that advocates for gun reform measures. Still, less than half of Americans lock up all of their guns in some fashion, according to a 2016 survey by the RAND corporation.
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said the group supports the idea of safe storage, just not a state or local mandate.
If children injure themselves or someone else with an unsecured firearm, Rieck said child endangerment laws already exist to hold someone responsible. Plus, Rieck said, Ohioans who don’t already lock up their guns with kids around won’t be more likely to do so because of a law.
“They’re trying to reach an audience that is not reachable ... This is not someone who is going to follow a storage law,” he said. “We oppose legal mandates, but obviously if you have small children in a household you need to store guns safely ... that’s just the responsible thing to do.”
‘It’s a carrot rather than a stick’
While Rieck doesn’t support Columbus’ law, Buckeye Firearms Association has endorsed legislation at the Ohio Statehouse promoting safe storage.
Senate Bill 189, introduced in January by Democratic senators Vernon Sykes of Akron and Hearcel Craig of Columbus, would offer up to a $250 tax credit to buyers of a gun storage device and another $250 to Ohioans who take a firearms safety course.
Rep. Darnell Brewer, D-cleveland, and Rep. Sean Brennan, D-parma, introduced House Bill 186 in September, which would alter state law so Ohioans would not have to pay state or local sales tax on gun locks or gun safes and lock boxes. Along with Buckeye Firearms Association, the legislation is supported by the National Riffle Association and Sandy Hook Promise, a gun control advocacy organization formed after the deadly 2012 shooting at a Connecticut elementary.
“It’s a carrot rather than a stick,” Rieck said of the bills. “We want people to be safe, to get training and to obey the law.”
While statewide legislation could help gun owners buy locks and lock boxes, many are already available free of charge.
Columbus Public Health gave out 5,249 gun lock boxes in 2023, the first year the public health agency began offering them for free to the public, said city Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts. The health department has given away nearly 600 boxes already in 2024 and expects to provide more through the summer months when gun violence typically reaches its peak locally.
Columbus Fire also offers free gun locks made of braided steel at fire stations and various other counties and municipalities throughout the region offer locks and storage boxes, according to the city of Columbus.
Although guns have long been a political wedge issue, Roberts said she doesn’t see why safely storing one should be part of that discourse. Giving out lock boxes is no different than giving out the opioid reversal drug naloxone, Roberts said, because it’s about harm reduction rather than politics.
“A gun lock box is not taking anyone’s rights away,” she said. “It’s securing a deadly weapon.”
Every shooting ‘raises the question’ of safe storage
David Tryon is playing a waiting game.
In April, a Delaware County judge granted the Buckeye Institute’s request for a temporary injunction against Columbus’ safe storage law. A small section of the city is located in Delaware County. Since then, the law has been on hold and the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the city can appeal the ruling.
“We want to put everyone including the government back on track to follow the law... If the city feels it’s important to change the way people store firearms, they should be working with the state legislature to change that,” said Tryon, who represents the rightleaning Buckeye Institute.
It could be a year or more before the case is resolved, Tryon said. Tryon said he’s confident the state’s highest court will rule in the Buckeye Institute’s favor since he said state law prohibits municipalities from establishing their own ordinances on firearm storage.
While the fate of Columbus’ law remains unclear, City Attorney Zach Klein said it’s the type of gun measure he believes most Ohioans and Columbus residents support. But, with court action pending Klein said law enforcement have been advised not to enforce it for the time being.
“There have been instances that could have been investigated but were not because the law is stayed,” Klein said. “Anytime I see a gun incident within the city of Columbus, to me it raises the question of whether it is a safe storage case or not.”
Although the law is on hold, Klein’s office did manage to prosecute one case under the safe storage law before the injunction was file. It was a conviction of Matthew Rivas, the father and owner of the gun found and shot by Allen’s son in January.
Rivas, pleaded guilty April 4 to two counts of negligent storage of a firearm and one count of child endangerment. Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Jarrod B. Skinner sentenced Rivas to 10 days in jail, two years of probation and ordered Rivas to pay a $150 fine and for the firearm from the shooting to be destroyed.
Since the unintentional January shooting, Allen said she’s tried again and again to explain to her kids the nature of what happened.
While the kids understand the incident was scary, Allen said they still don’t fully comprehend how serious it was. It just goes to show how difficult it is to make children realize the danger guns can pose, which is why Allen said she supports the city’s safe storage law.
“It’s a matter of people choosing to do the right thing and if they don’t then the law steps in,” Allen said. “Any chance is too much of a chance when it comes to your child’s life.” mfilby@dispatch.com
@Maxfilby