Sponsors (200)
The bill aims to reduce child and community firearm harms by imposing federal safe-storage standards and civil/criminal accountability, trading increased public safety and reduced downstream costs for new compliance costs, enforcement burdens, and expanded legal exposure for firearm owners.
Children and teens are less likely to access unsecured firearms in homes, reducing accidental shootings and youth suicide.
Fewer unsecured and stolen guns in circulation — supported by seizure/forfeiture authority and secure-storage standards — could reduce gun thefts and downstream violent crime.
Better storage and fewer firearm injuries could lower healthcare and emergency-response costs and help preserve neighborhood property values and local business activity.
Gun owners (including parents) face new criminal exposure—fines and potential imprisonment—if firearms are stored improperly, which can apply even when owners did not directly cause the misuse.
Households that own firearms could incur out-of-pocket costs for locks, safes, and compliance, and risk property loss through forfeiture if storage rules are found violated.
Federal storage mandates and related penalties may be perceived as burdensome regulation of lawful gun ownership, raising rights and political opposition.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Makes it a federal offense to store a firearm in a residence when a minor or a prohibited resident is likely to access it, adds penalties, seizure authority, and a safe-storage program insertion plus a negligence statement.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress February 25, 2025
Makes it a federal crime to keep a firearm on residential premises when the person storing it knows or should know that a minor (under 18) is likely to gain access without permission or that a resident is legally prohibited from possessing firearms. The bill creates fines and possible prison time for violations, authorizes seizure and forfeiture of improperly stored firearms, adds a framework for a federal "Firearm Safe Storage Program," and contains a nonbinding statement that unsafe storage is negligence and may be treated as a legal/proximate cause of harm.