Families deserve to know their children are at safe schools and free from gun violence

Mass shootings have inflicted incomprehensible trauma on a generation of students and communities, unfathomable to previous generations.

Last month, four precious students were shot and then later died after a student perpetrator used a gun and killed his classmates at Oxford High School in Oakland, Mich.

The courage of the Oakland County Prosecutor to rightly press charges against his parents is important and historic. These actions and now charges demand accountability and seek to assign the ultimate responsibility to parents seemingly oblivious to the needs and lives of the other precious students who attended school with their son.

We all know that this tragedy should have never been allowed to occur. We all know that parents deserve to know their children are safe while at school.

For the last 20 years, our students, educators, and parents have lived with the reality of gun violence and deadly school shootings. From 2013 to 2019, Everytown, an American non-profit organization, which advocates for gun control and against gun violence, identified 549 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. Of these shootings, 347 occurred on the grounds of an elementary, middle, or high school, resulting in the deaths of 129 people and injuries of 270 others. At least 208 of the victims were students.

Despite these tragic and painful truths, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass common sense and meaningful gun reform laws. The failure to address the root causes of gun violence in our schools has unfortunately had lasting consequences for millions of American children and families.

Everytown’s analysis demonstrates that while mass shootings on school grounds—like the devastating incidents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Santa Fe High School, and Oxford High School may not be commonplace, that these incidents account for a disproportionate share of the overall deaths and number of people wounded from school gun violence.

I intend to add to this conversation, as a mother, and grandmother, who insists that families deserve to know their children are safe while away at school. My bill, The Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act of 2021, will take several steps to expand the use of safe firearm storage devices to reduce firearm suicide, unintentional shootings, gun violence and other firearm injuries and deaths. This legislation, once passed, will establish federal voluntary best practices relating to safe firearm storage and make them easily accessible to the American people.

It will require gun dealers and manufacturers which serialize no less than 250 firearms annually, to include a clear written notice that states “Safe Storage Saves Lives,” and clearly explain ways to achieve safe storage and access to best practices as established by the attorney general of the United States. It will also establish a current requirement that federal firearms licensees make available safe firearm storage devices during sales of handguns, rifles, and shotguns.

Additionally, it will set aside funding for a 10-year, $10 million dollar grant program for states and Indian Tribes for the development, implementation, and evaluation of Safe Firearm Storage Assistance Programs. Such programs would be carried out by units of local government or nonprofit organizations with the sole purpose of acquiring and distributing safe firearm storage devices.

It will also amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow for a 10 percent credit against tax for sales at retail of external safe firearm storage devices, with a maximum $40 credit per item sold.

My colleagues and I must take the necessary steps to intervene to stop this violent behavior by blocking easy access to guns. Easy access to firearms not only contributes to school murders, but also high rates of unintentional gun deaths among children and youth suicides.

Four million and six hundred thousand minors in the U.S. live in homes with at least one loaded and unlocked firearm. Many children know where their parents keep their guns and have admitted to accessing household guns — even in instances their parents believe they do not.

Child access prevention laws are necessary if we are going to reduce deaths caused by gun violence. Congress has a duty and an obligation to pass and enact the Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act of 2021, now, as it will encourage the safe storage of firearms by limiting access of guns to children who have unsupervised access to guns.

Families deserve to know their children are safe while at school.

Lee represents the 18th District of Texas and is chairwoman of the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.