(The Center Square) – An Ohio legislator wants to impose criminal penalties on gun owners who fail to secure firearms and the weapons are used by a child to hurt themselves or another person.
The sponsor, State Rep. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, stressed that it is not a “safe storage” mandate to keep guns locked up.
“It does not restrict lawful self-defense,” the legislator said. “It does not penalize gun ownership. Instead, it imposes accountability only when a minor gains access to a negligently stored firearm and harm results. In other words, there is no violation unless a child actually gets ahold of the gun.”
The legislation is titled,“Amya’s Law,” after an 11-year-old girl, Amya Frazier , who was killed in 2025 by her cousin who was playing with his father’s unsecured firearm.
“This is not about punishing gun owners,” her grandmother, Amy Frazier, said at a news conference. “This is about preventing tragedies. This is about responsibility. It’s about protection. It’s about making sure no grandmother has to stand where I stand today.””
The legislation also includes a state tax credit of up to $250 for gun safes, lockboxes, and trigger locks and exempts firearm safety devices from sales taxes.
Some studies have shown a correlation between so-called Child Access Prevention laws and fewer injuries, suicides and deaths, according the non-profit Rand Foundation.
“The six higher quality studies all found that CAP laws were associated with reduced firearm self-injuries or suicides among youth, and four found significant effects,” the foundation said. “Two of these studies evaluated total suicides: One found an uncertain effect for all ages, and one found significant reductions separately for youth aged 14–17 and for young adults aged 18–20.”
The National Rifle Association encourages gun owners to safely store their weapons, the organization says on its website.
“As the foremost leader in firearms safety training, the NRA encourages all gun owners to safely store firearms so that they are inaccessible to unauthorized users,” the organization said.
However, gun owners’ situations vary and no one-size-fits-all approach will work, the group said.
The most effective way to teach firearm safety to children is through their parents, the NRA said.
CAP laws also raise constitutional questions, according to the NRA.
A Washington, D.C. law that prohibited residents from “keeping a loaded, functional firearm ready for self-defense,” was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, the NRA said.
“The Supreme Court held that the law was unconstitutional because it deprived law-abiding Americans of their right to self-defense,” the organization said.
