Gun storage bill that failed last session passes House, Senate

A bill that would require gun owners to safely secure their firearm out of minors’ reach and also away from anyone barred from owning a weapon is on its way to Gov. Glenn Youngkin after narrowly passing the House and Senate.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Herndon, SB 368, is identical to Democrat Del. Marcus Simon’s HB 183, which has yet to pass the Senate. Boysko’s bill passed the Senate 21-19, along party lines, and passed largely the same way in the House, 51-49.

Breaking the established rules would constitute a Class 4 misdemeanor with a fine of up to $250.

In Virginia and the rest of America, gun violence is the primary cause of death for children, Boysko noted. She cited a series of statistics, like that one in three households in the country contain a firearm and that, of those, one in five store at least one gun loaded and in an unsecure area, typically a bedside night stand. Both statistics fall in line with those presented in a National Library of Medicine publication from 2018.

“The data is clear,” Boysko said during the Feb. 1 Senate regular session. “There needs to be accountability for those who leave firearms unsecured. These are preventable injuries and deaths.”

The bill had passed the Senate during the 2023 Regular Session, but died in the Committee on Public Safety.

Republican Sen. John McGuire of Goochland opposed the bill, seeing it as a violation of the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

“It is our God-given right to protect ourselves, our families, and our children,” McGuire said during the session.

Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain of Harrisonburg also opposed the bill, but not for any reasons relating to one’s right to bear arms.

“I am a responsible gun owner, but I also keep a loaded firearm in my house and the gun safes I bought last Christmas are, frankly, the only gun safes that were available,” Obenshain said during the session. “Those gun safes are illegal under this legislation. It requires you to have a biometric gun safe.”

Typical gun safes have numerical locks, usually requiring a four or six-digit code. Biometric gun safes use biology-based locks, usually through a finger scan. Despite the lock differences, both are typically sold for around the same prices, depending on the size.