Kids Around, Lock Guns Down
Kids Around, Lock Guns Down
We must stop giving negligent gun owners a pass
By: Kristin Song
The door opened slowly, and the ER doctor walked in and leaned against the wall. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor and put his head in his hands. Then in a voice barely audible he said, "I am so sorry. He's gone."
My husband Mike and I looked at each other, panic splashed across our faces. Mike had the courage to ask, "How was Ethan killed?"
"Your son was shot in the head. He had zero chance of survival. Please remember him as he was,” the ER doctor pleaded with us. I stared at the room where my 15-year-old son was just pronounced dead. "He is unrecognizable even to your eyes,” the doctor whispered.
My beautiful boy was killed in his best friend's house. The gun owner stored his three handguns and ammunition in a shoebox. Ethan's friend, who had just passed the NRA safety course and grew up with guns, had been showing his friends the unsecured guns for over six months. Instead of the negligent gun owner being arrested and prosecuted though, his 14-year-old son was arrested and charged with manslaughter.
This country is criminalizing our children and treating negligent gun owners as the victims.
As a person, we may have sympathy for the gun owner. "I'm sure they didn't mean for the child/children to gain access and kill/injure themselves or someone else's child; this tragedy will haunt the gun owner as long as they live; it was an accident wasn't it, these things happen."
This country's sympathy is misplaced. The negligent gun owners are not the victims, the dead and injured children are the victims. Therefore, we must stop giving negligent gun owners a pass.
Unsecured guns are responsible for many teen suicides and preventable (unintentional) deaths. In addition, 76% of school shooters use unsecured firearms from home/relative's home to hunt and kill innocent children in school.
Ethan's death was not an outlier. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for our children, which means your child or your grandchild, has a greater chance of being killed by a gun than any other danger they will face.
These deaths will not stop until we start holding gun owners responsible.
You would think the carnage of our dead children would be enough to change gun owners' behavior, but sadly it is not. That is why I continue to fight for Ethan's Law, which requires gun owners to store their weapons if children can gain access. Ethan's Law was passed in the House of Representatives in June 2022. Unfortunately, it was not included in the Safer Communities Act. But I am undeterred.
On Ethan's fifth anniversary, January 31, 2023, Senator Blumenthal and Murphy and Representative DeLauro reintroduced Ethan's Law. Currently, 30 senators and 186 representatives have stepped up to cosponsor.
Ethan's Law was passed in Connecticut with overwhelming bipartisan support, and versions of Ethan's Law are being introduced across the country – New Mexico, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, and Illinois all have a good chance of passing this legislation this session.
This work is not for the faint of heart. I have been trolled on social media, told it was my fault Ethan died, yelled at by gun advocates, and dismissed by Republicans, but I will never give up. You see, as I watched Ethan lowered into the ground, I promised him he would not die in vain. I promised him there would be change.
Kristin Song is the founder and president of The Ethan Miller Song Foundation. She can be reached at: ks@getcontrol.net
Kristin,
It's hard to read these words without being moved by them. I know you will get this done because it would have prevented Ethan's death. This will pass, and it will save thousands of young lives. Ethan did not die in vain. You and Mike have already made a difference in his name.