Any bill that restricts gun owners in any way is usually a hard sell in the Ohio Legislature. But a Democratic state lawmaker is pushing forward with a bill he said will promote firearm safety without putting a storage mandate on gun owners. The bill is named "Amya's Law", in honor of an 11-year-old Columbus girl who died after an accidental shooting in December.
Rep. Darnell Brewer (D-Cleveland) said his bill is not a typical safe storage bill.
“This bill does not create a storage mandate. It does not restrict lawful self-defense. It does not penalize gun ownership," Brewer said. "Instead, it upholds accountability only when a minor gains access to a neglected stored firearm and harm results.”
Brewer said if a gun is left out and a child gets hold of it and hurts someone, the owner could face up to a fourth-degree felony. The bill also includes a $250 nonrefundable income tax credit for gun sales, lockboxes and trigger locks, as well as a sales tax exemption for gun safety devices.
Amya Frazier's family spoke out in favor of the bill. Her mother Hope Frazier couldn't hide her pain as she told reporters how Amya was shot by a cousin with a gun that wasn't properly stored.
“You can’t even imagine the pain I felt, the hurt, the part of my heart that was ripped out of my chest," she said. "My whole world crumbled."
“Amya Frazier should be here today," Brewer said. "The state of Ohio has failed Amya and the thousands of other Ohioans killed by gun violence each year.”
The bill hasn't been assigned a number yet. Brewer also plans to introduce four other bills to restrict gun violence:
- The Foster Safe Storage Act requiring foster caregivers in Ohio to safely store guns
- The Ohio Public Safety Savings and Prevention Act to create an Office of Violence Prevention in the Ohio Department of Health to provide safety and gun violence prevention information and strategies to communities
- The Ohio Mental Health Systems Coordination and Crisis Prevention Commission Act to deal with mental health care and crisis interventions
- Gun Violence Awareness Month observed in June
The legislation faces an uphill battle
One of the state's leading gun rights groups said it appreciates Brewer's efforts on behalf of child safety, but it's not on board with this bill.
Dean Rieck with Buckeye Firearms Association said the group has already made clear to Brewer that "child endangerment is already covered by ORC Section 2919.22, which outlines the responsibilities of parents or guardians to maintain a safe environment for children and prescribes specific penalties for violating this section when a child is harmed or harms another."
Rieck said a recent incident last month in Kent where a woman was charged with child endangerment after her second grader brought a loaded gun to school shows that the child endangerment law is available to prosecutors.
Republican state lawmakers have approved several bills to remove or reduce gun regulations in the last decade, most of which have been signed by Republican Govs. John Kasich and Mike DeWine. Legislators overrode Kasich's veto of a law that would shift the burden of proof in self-defense cases from the defense to the prosecution in 2018. And lawmakers didn't move a package of gun regulations backed by DeWine after a mass shooting in Dayton in 2019.
