Sponsors (201)
The bill seeks to reduce accidental shootings and improve public safety by promoting and enforcing safe firearm storage nationwide, but it does so at the cost of new compliance expenses, criminal and civil exposure for gun owners, and added legal and administrative uncertainty for governments and courts.
Parents, children, and teens would face a substantially lower risk of accidental shootings and youth suicide because the bill promotes and (in some parts) requires safer firearm storage in homes.
Communities and law enforcement would likely see fewer firearm-related incidents and injuries because the bill creates penalties and signals stronger expectations for safe storage, which can deter negligent behavior.
States and localities would get federal support and clearer federal authority to set and promote national safe-storage standards—through a federal program offering grants, guidance, or technical assistance—helping scale prevention efforts.
Gun owners would face new criminal exposure, recurring fines, and the risk that firearms stored in violation could be seized or forfeited, imposing legal and financial harms (including potential property loss) before or during litigation.
Individuals who own firearms could incur out-of-pocket costs to comply (locks, safes, or other devices) and related compliance expenses.
The bill could trigger substantial legal uncertainty and more litigation—over federal authority to set storage rules, how a non‑binding 'sense of Congress' affects proximate-cause law, and liability exposure—raising lawyers' and courts' workloads.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal offense for unsafe residential firearm storage when minors or prohibited persons may access, adds penalties and forfeiture, and adds a safe storage program.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress February 25, 2025
Creates a federal crime for keeping a firearm at a residence in a way that a minor or a person legally prohibited from possessing firearms can likely access it, with fines and possible imprisonment if the improperly stored firearm is obtained and causes injury or death. Establishes an exception for locked storage or use of a safety device, adds a federal "safe storage" program (text not included in the excerpt), and issues a nonbinding statement that such storage failures constitute negligence for civil and criminal purposes.