LAFAYETTE — Senate Bill No. 344, which would have criminalized storing unsecured firearms where it is reasonably known that a child could access the gun, was struck down in the Louisiana Senate last week
“There’s absolutely zero excuse for a child getting ahold of a firearm, right? You have a responsibility as a gun owner to keep that access prevention,” Matt Oliver, owner of Advantage Training Academy, said.
“I’ll hear things all the time. ‘Oh, they don’t know where my gun is, or they can’t reach it.' That’s just not the case. Kids are going to dig. Kids are going to climb,” he said.
According to the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System, 1,262 children died from unintentional firearm injuries from 2003 to 2021. The data shows 85.5% of deaths were caused by the shooter playing or showing off a firearm, accidentally pulling the trigger, mistaking a gun as a toy, or thinking the gun is unloaded.
Oliver said, “First thing is education. Teach your children from a very young age, ‘What do you do when you come across a gun?’"
“So you teach them, if they come across a firearm, the first thing is you stop, don’t touch it, run away and tell an adult,” he added.
He says there are ways to store guns safely around children.
“I do have two little ones around that I have to make sure that they can’t access and that’s the purpose of things like speed safes or stop boxes so I can get to it fast but still prevents their unauthorized access,” Oliver said.
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