Connecticut lawmakers plan to reintroduce Ethan’s Law, federal gun safety storage legislation, which would create national requirements for safe gun storage.
Ethan's Law is named in honor of Ethan Song, a Guilford teen who officials said was killed with a gun in his friend’s house in early 2018. Ethan would have celebrated his 20th birthday on Thursday.
Ethan was a 15-year-old Guilford High School freshman when he died.
A report from the Waterbury State’s Attorney said Song accidentally shot himself, and called the teen’s death a “horrific and preventable tragedy.”
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The report went on to say that the weapon was stored with two others in a cardboard box inside a large Tupperware in a master bedroom closet of the home. Each weapon had a gun lock and there was no evidence that the weapons were loaded, but investigators determined that the keys to those locks and ammunition for the guns were also hidden in the closet.
Investigators said there is no evidence that the gun owner knew the juveniles had accessed the guns.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, and Kristin and Mike Song held a news conference at 9:30 a.m. at the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence on Valley Street in New Haven.
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“Ethan’s death was not an accident. You see, the word accident implies that there was nothing the gun owner could have done to prevent his death, but we know better. The gun owner could have simply locked up his guns. You would think the carnage of our dead children would be enough to change public attitude, but sadly it Is not. And that is why Ethan’s Law it is so important to pass on a federal level,” Kristin Song said.
Ethan’s Law passed the House of Representatives last year as a part of the Protecting Our Kids Act.
