A Guilford family devastated by gun violence is taking their fight for tougher laws to Washington.
On Tuesday lawmakers are expected to introduce a national version of Ethan’s Law, a measure meant to toughen gun storage requirements. The law is named for Ethan Song who died in 2018 at age 15 when he was handling the unsecured gun of a friend’s father. The gun was stored in the friend’s house in a Tupperware container alongside bullets and the keys to the gun’s trigger lock.
NBC Connecticut’s Leslie Mayes spoke to Ethan’s parent’s by Skype from Washington, D.C. at the end of their first day lobbying members of Congress.
The couple says the goal is to get gun owners to be more conscious of safe gun storage, particularly when children could gain access to their weapons.
“The point is to just change behavior, so that gun owner who is walking put their door for them to pause and say ‘is my gun really securely locked up because my children may be coming home after school and I wont be here?’” said Kristin Song.
The Connecticut version of the legislation passed the state House of Representatives in early May.
The Song family is in Washington alongside Connecticut Against Gun Violence along with the Newtown Action Alliance. They’re focusing the bulk of their time in Washington meeting with republican lawmakers, hoping to gather the same bipartisan support the bill received in the Connecticut House.
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The Songs will return to Connecticut at the end of the week to be present when the state Senate votes on the local Ethan’s Law.
