Sponsors
The bill strengthens rules, penalties, education, and reporting to reduce youth access to firearms and unsafe storage, but it introduces new criminal/civil liabilities, due-process and privacy concerns, and increased administrative costs and unequal access to programs across states.
Parents, children, and households with firearms: reduces accidental shootings and youth access by tightening supervised-transfer rules, requiring safer on-premises possession/ storage practices, and providing age-appropriate safety education and outreach.
Law enforcement and the public: clarifies accountability for transfers to juveniles and adds civil penalties and NICS-based transfer denials for repeat noncompliance, which may deter unsafe transfers and keep firearms from repeat violators.
Victims of harms from unsecured firearms: creates a federal private right of action allowing compensatory and punitive damages, expanding legal remedies and deterrence against negligent storage and supervision.
Parents and lawful gun owners: faces increased criminal and civil liability for common storage or supervision practices (including joint-and-several liability), raising risks of prosecution, large damage awards, and higher insurance/legal costs.
Adults seeking to supervise juveniles or to purchase firearms: may have rights and due-process harmed because the pool of eligible supervisors is narrowed (those prohibited by law excluded) and NICS transfer denials can be imposed based on civil penalties (not convictions) for up to five years.
Taxpayers, federal employees, and local schools: implementing enforcement mechanisms, adjudications, NICS updates, grant administration, and detailed reporting will increase administrative workload and costs for federal and local governments.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal prohibition on unsecured firearm storage with civil penalties and private lawsuits, limits parental consent for juvenile handgun possession, funds parent-education grants, and requires DOJ reporting.
Introduced June 27, 2025 by Madeleine Dean · Last progress June 27, 2025
Creates new federal storage and supervision rules for firearms, adds civil and administrative penalties for leaving an "unsecured firearm" where a juvenile or other person can access it, limits parental written consent for juvenile handgun possession unless an adult is actively supervising, funds local education agencies to provide parent gun-safety education in states with similar storage laws, and requires DOJ reporting on implementation with demographic breakdowns. Establishes a private right of action and allows the Attorney General to assess civil money penalties for unsecured-storage violations (first violation up to $1,000; later violations up to $5,000), directs NICS and FFL notice requirements for those penalized, and conditions some firearm-transfer disqualifications on recent penalty assessments. Grants to LEAs are competitive and intended to support parent education and outreach about safe storage.