Parents Need to Be Held Accountable in School Shootings

Read this great op-ed in today's New York Times about holding parents accountable when they fail to secure their firearms, allowing their children to access them and use them to kill and injure others.

As the piece states: "Charging the parents of the teenager, Ethan Crumbley, won’t solve America’s epidemic of school shootings, but it could be an important step in averting some of these unspeakable tragedies. Holding parents criminally accountable for failing to secure guns in their homes might encourage them to be more responsible."

This brings to mind two important points.

First, we are once again reminded of how lucky Maine is to have our new Gun Safety Caucus in the legislature, and its tireless leader Rep. Vicki Doudera, who worked to make sure that our laws make clear that failing to secure a loaded firearm in the presence of children is a crime.

Second, this should be the law of our nation, not just Maine. Ethan's Law, HR 748, which is very close in text to Maine's safe storage law, now has over 200 co-sponsors. Rep. Golden is shameful not one of them.

Call Rep. Golden and urge him to cosponsor Ethan's Law/HR 748 today!

Bangor: (207) 249-7400

Caribou: (207) 492-6009

Lewiston: (207) 241-6767

D.C.: (202) 225-6306

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/opinion/michigan-school-shooting-parents.html