A Post analysis found that such measures could have a profound impact, since more than half of the country’s school shootings since 1999 could have been prevented if the children who killed their classmates did not have access to firearms. And an academic study found that the number of gun-related accidental deaths and suicides among children and teenagers would drop by as much as a third.
One reason for the dramatic drop is that in gun-owning households with children, about 2 in 10 gun owners store at least one firearm in the least safe manner — loaded and unlocked. That would represent 5 million minors living in houses with unsecured guns.
Bayer said her fellow lawmakers may now agree with her belief that a safe-storage law is needed in Michigan because of the student deaths and the resulting community trauma that has followed the Oxford High School shooting.
“This common-sense law may have prevented this shooting,” Bayer said. “We have met resistance on gun measures in the past, but we must take action this time. It’s time we come together and implement real solutions.”
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