Gun control advocates demand lawmakers reconsider gun safety bills

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A coalition of groups is crying foul after a pair of gun safety bills were not given hearings by legislators in the statehouse.

It came after a 7-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the stomach on the east side of Indianapolis in December.

The boy survived the shooting.

Andrew Holmes, Founder of the Lock It Down Foundation and a well known anti-violence activist and crisis responder in Chicago, said he partnered with Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, northwest Indiana police chiefs, and Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter to form a new gun lock initiative.

According to Holmes, the partnership began on Jan. 26. It included “corporate and community leaders” and clergy. Lisette Guillen with Case Files Chicago was also included.

One of the bills, House Bill 1318, would have provided a tax credit for safe gun storage expenses, which, according to the bill text, was defined as a safe, lockbox, cabinet, “or other container designed to store firearms securely by restricting access to the firearms by a locking device.”

The other, House Bill 1325, charging anyone, in charge of a dependent, who “recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally fails to secure a loaded firearm in the person’s residence or vehicle is guilty of neglect of a dependent, a level 6 felony, if the dependent uses the gun to injure or kill someone.”

Neither bill was given a hearing during the legislative session before the deadline for the bills to advance.

“Anyone who has guns should be able to get a lock or a box and lock it down, instead of spending $10,000 or $11,000 on a funeral when all of these locks cost just $2 to save a child’s life,” Holmes said Thursday in front of the state capital.