1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

The horrific school shooting in Bend, Oregon is a stark warning that Pennsylvania cannot ignore. Up to 90% of firearms used by minors in school shootings, suicides, and unintentional shootings are taken directly from their own home or the home of a relative. Yet Pennsylvania still has zero comprehensive safe storage or Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws on the books. Under current Pennsylvania law (18 Pa.C.S. § 6110.1), while minors are prohibited from possessing handguns, there is a massive statutory loophole: adult gun owners face no standalone mandate to lock up unattended firearms, and no automatic felony liability when their negligent storage enables a child to carry a weapon into a classroom. Waiting to piece together general reckless endangerment charges after children are murdered is a failure of governance. Legal precedent—including the Crumbley convictions—proves that holding parents criminally accountable for gross negligence is both constitutional and essential. I am demanding that the General Assembly immediately pass and strengthen HB 2244 to amend Title 18. We must mandate that all unattended firearms be secured in locked containers or with tamper-resistant locks whenever a minor may be present, and establish strict felony penalties for any parent or guardian whose unsecured weapon is used by a minor to commit violence in our schools.