Dem Sen. Murphy Calls for National Safe Storage Gun Law to Hold Parents 'Accountable'

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” called for a national safe storage law when reacting to James and Jennifer Crumbley being charged with involuntary manslaughter after their son 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley was charged for terrorism and murder in the school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “The prosecutor in Michigan is doing something unusual. She’s charging the parents of the alleged gunman with involuntary manslaughter. Not only did they buy him the gun. They ignored his disturbing behavior, searching for ammunition on his cellphone, drawing violent pictures at school. The school alerted them, and they didn’t seem to care much. Should more prosecutors be holding parents responsible when they are not doing enough to keep their guns out of the hands of children who use them for violent ends?”

Murphy said, “If parents violate the law, they should be held accountable. I don’t know the details of the Michigan law. It looks as if these parents bought a gun for their child, who shouldn’t have ever possessed it. If parents are in violation of state law, they should be held accountable. I do think this should make us think hard about safe storage laws. In Connecticut, we have on the books a law that requires parents to safely store their guns. If those guns aren’t locked up with minors in the house, they can be held accountable without question. Michigan doesn’t have that law on the books. But we should pass that on a national basis. I think we would get a lot of gun owners to support us, to say, if you have minors in the house, if you have weapons, you have to keep those weapons locked up. If we made that change, not only would that prevent some of these horrific mass shooting incidents.”

He added, “A safe storage law may be the thing that could draw bipartisan compromise, that could get support of a lot of common-sense gun owners. It’s not about taking anybody’s weapons away. It’s just about saying if you are going to own the weapon, store it safely.”

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