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01/21/2019 11:00 PMAlmost a year after 15 year-old Guilford High School freshman Ethan Song was killed, members of the Song family, legislators, and activists gathered to announce Ethan’s Law had been formally introduced as a bill in the Connecticut General Assembly. The bill seeks to close a legal loophole, promote safe storage of firearms, and promote gun safety education.
Ethan’s Law was first introduced to the community in November 2018, shortly after the state announced it was unable to press charges against Daniel Markle, the owner of the gun that killed Song, because state law requires a prosecutor to prove who loaded the weapon.
The report released by Waterbury State’s Attorney Maureen Platt concludes that charges could not be filed against the owner of the gun because there was insufficient evidence to prove that the weapon, a .357 Magnum handgun, was stored in a loaded state, a necessary requirement for prosecution according to current law. According to the state’s investigation, the gun was one of three in the home that were stored in a cardboard box inside a Tupperware container in a closet. Each gun had an operable gunlock and while there is no evidence that the gun used was loaded when it was in the box, ammunition for the weapon was stored in the same place, as were keys to the gunlocks.
The new legislation amends existing Connecticut General Statute 29-37i, which is the Connecticut firearm safe storage law, by removing the word “loaded.” In addition, the legislation further amends state law by requiring that the state board of education provide gun safety education as an option for public school students. State Representative Sean Scanlon, who introduced the bill, said having a curriculum for gun safety is an important resource for towns, but that no town will be forced to adopt this curriculum.
“We just want to make this resource available, and the reason it was put in there is I think towns and people and young people can benefit from some sort of training about the risks associated with playing with guns,” he said. “I don’t know if that would have changed anything for Ethan, but it might have and it might for somebody else that is going to sit through one of these classes, realize how dangerous this is, and then decide that when they go over to someone’s house and someone pulls out a gun, they are going to say, ‘No man, that’s not cool, I don’t want to play with that gun’.”
Scanlon and Ethan’s parents Mike and Kristin Song joined local officials, local activists, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) for a press conference on Jan. 18 regarding the legislation. Kristin Song said safe storage laws are a simple step to combating gun violence.
“This legislation that will be submitted is simply geared to save lives,” she said. “A bullet is an equal opportunist. It does not see political parties, race, religion, age, occupation, or gender. It just sees death…This legislation is a win-win. The gun violence in this country could be reduced dramatically if guns are safely stored and secured. This legislation is non-partisan because all of us have the same goal, to keep our loved ones safe.”
Scanlon confirmed that he is already seeing bipartisan support for this piece of legislation.
“This is an issue we are already seeing Democrats and Republicans, gun owners and gun rights activists, coming together and saying ‘I stand in support of safe gun storage’ because they understand, all of us understand, that this is the right thing to do to not just protect lives but to make our entire community safer,” he said.
Blumenthal said there will be a push at the federal level in this congress as well to adopt safe gun storage laws. He said a federal law would be modeled after the modified Connecticut safe storage law.
“My hope is that my colleagues will see this as a simple, straightforward act of moral obligation,” he said. “We know that the country wants background checks and other common sense measures, which we will be advancing and advocating during this congress. Safe storage should be a simple, achievable step on which there is clear consensus.”
In Hartford, Ethan’s Law now has a House Bill number and has been referred to the Judiciary Committee. Scanlon said there will be a hearing on the bill before that committee in February and the public is welcome to attend or submit testimony online. If the bill passes out of committee, it is then called on the floor of the House, then the Senate, and then eventually lands in front of the governor.