I am a student at the University of Florida, a proud Floridian and a young person who has seen firsthand what happens when a gun is not stored securely.
In 2016, I lost a friend, who was 13 years old, to an accidental shooting. It was the result of a gun left unsecured in a family member’s home. In a matter of seconds, a preventable accident became a permanent loss. If that firearm had been locked, unloaded and stored separately from ammunition, he might be sitting in a college classroom today. Instead, there was one more empty chair at graduation, one more missing face at the dinner table and one more family left grieving.
Unfortunately, this story is not unique. A 2019 US Secret Service report said roughly three in four school shooters obtain their guns from a parent or relative. And, more than half of gun owners in the United States do not store all their firearms securely, according to a 2018 Johns Hopkins survey.
Secure storage means storing firearms locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition. This simple step drastically reduces the risk of unintentional shootings, suicides, gun thefts and school shootings. Households that lock both firearms and ammunition see an 85% lower risk of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens, according to a 2005 study.
And yet, Florida’s child access prevention law only requires secure storage if a loaded gun could be accessed by someone under 16. Even then, the gun owner can only be held accountable if the minor actually accesses the gun and then displays it in public or uses it in a threatening way. That is not prevention. That is waiting for tragedy and then pointing fingers.
The consequences of these gaps in the law could not be clearer. Last spring, a 20-year-old student used his stepmother’s unsecured firearm to kill two people and injure six more at Florida State University. He was too young to buy a gun legally, but because our law only addresses children under 16, his stepmother did not have to securely store her gun around him. And after his horrific crimes were committed, there was no legal accountability for the fact that he had easy access to a deadly weapon. That shooting was entirely preventable.
This is why secure storage is not controversial. It is common sense. Many responsible gun owners already follow these practices. But voluntary measures are not enough when lives are on the line. Expanding Florida’s child access prevention law into a comprehensive secure storage law is a straightforward, nonpartisan way to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
Tallahassee has introduced bills to weaken our laws, such as lowering the firearm purchase age from 21 to 18. That is the wrong direction. Instead, lawmakers should prioritize passing strong secure storage requirements that cover all unauthorized access, not just by children under 16.
Every empty seat in a classroom, every unused cap and gown and every dinner table missing a loved one reminds us what is at stake. We know secure storage saves lives. The data proves it. The question is whether our leaders will act before the next tragedy forces us to grieve again.
No more excuses. No more preventable funerals. The time to act is now.
Isaiah Sloan is a 20-year-old UF biology and political science junior and the president of UF Students Demand Action.
