Smith and Wesson handguns are displayed. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a resolution to encourage Ohioans to safely store their guns so children stop dying, as actual firearm regulation legislation sits stagnant in the Republican-dominated legislature.
Year after year, tragedy strikes in cases where unsecured guns turn into accidental shootings.
Just in the last few months, an Akron 10-year-old was accidentally shot in the face while with a friend. A Cleveland 14-year-old was accidentally shot and killed after a gun went off in a car. An Elyria 15-year-old was also accidentally shot. A 1-year-old had to undergo surgery after a teen accidentally shot him.
These are just some of the 2025 cases, but we’ve covered dozens throughout the years — ranging from babies to toddlers to teens to adults.
Another problem facing Ohio is when cars are broken into to steal guns.
State Rep. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, is trying to target the problem.
“We can encourage people to one, honor the Second Amendment; and two, safely store their guns,” Brewer said.
He and state Rep. Kelly Deeter, R-Norwalk, have put forward Ohio House Resolution 148. It encourages Ohioans to store and secure their weapons and pushes cities and organizations to have safety campaigns.
Cincinnati already has a few, including a program where gun owners can store their firearms at the police department for up to six months for free.
“When the grandkids are coming over… when someone in the home is having a mental health crisis — there are all kinds of reasons where people feel having a gun inside their home is not safe at that time,” Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney said.
The City of Columbus has been trying to curb this problem for years.
The Ohio Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to a Columbus ordinance requiring owners to lock up their guns.
State Rep. Josh Williams encourages safe storage to prevent deaths, but said there can’t be a requirement.
“I understand that these situations occur, but that doesn’t mean that you can violate the constitutional rights of every other law-abiding citizen,” Williams said.
Brewer was asked about the likelihood that this resolution could pass after Ohio Republican lawmakers have repeatedly passed laws to remove gun restrictions and refused to pass laws that put any restrictions on gun ownership.
“Hopefully we tell the story,” Brewer said, detailing incidents of a toddler being shot in Columbus, and the 2023 case of a pregnant Huron County woman who was killed with her baby also not surviving, after her two-year-old shot her.
“We’re trying to move the Republicans to change their heart and their minds.”
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said they need real change.
“I applaud the bipartisan effort to engage in this important public safety conversation. We know that safe storage saves lives. It’s why Columbus Public Health has led efforts to educate parents and distribute free gun locks, and it’s why the City of Columbus passed our safe storage ordinance,” Klein said in a statement.
He then targeted the lawmakers.
“Ohioans want and support reasonable gun laws that protect families and children, but we know that real change cannot happen unless lawmakers find the political will to pass laws that will save lives. This resolution is a step in the right direction and should be applauded. We pledge to work with any legislators who are serious about doing what we can to protect the lives of Ohio’s children through commonsense measures like safe storage,” he added.
Klein and activists like Moms Demand Action want gun lock-up requirements, universal background checks, and red flag laws — all of which Brewer agrees with.
“This is hopefully a step in the right direction, a small step,” Brewer said.
The City of Cleveland explained some of its campaigns, like CPD’s Community Relations Unit, which teaches gun safety classes to kids at schools.
That team has also worked with organizations to promote safe storage, along with distributing gun locks. Cincinnati libraries and schools do something similar.
“The City has also helped promote awareness through other avenues – like lighting up Tower City orange for National Gun Violence Awareness Day and coordinating pledge signing events for youth, which we will do again tomorrow,” spokesperson Tyler Sinclair said.
“More than 1,000 kids signed the pledge at 20 rec centers across Cleveland last year. We appreciate the thoughts behind the resolution and welcome further tangible action.”
Neither Columbus nor Cleveland addressed the fact that no money would be provided to municipalities or community partners from the state to promote public awareness on safe storage. The City of Cincinnati didn’t respond to comment at all.
“Unfortunately, there would be no financial help,” Brewer said. “I do have a bill, again, to try to give financial help to cities who do violence interventions.”
The lawmaker said because it’s just encouragement, not a mandate, his resolution has a higher likelihood of passing the GOP-controlled legislature.
Leadership
It seems that Gov. Mike DeWine has the same goal as Democrats like Klein, yet he has signed every bill loosening firearm restrictions that have hit his desk — even after a 2019 mass shooting in Dayton.
After the deadly Minneapolis school shooting this summer, we asked DeWine about his plans.
“Look, I’ve tried some different things,” the governor told us in August. “And we’ve not gotten them through.”
We tried to follow up with him on Tuesday on whether there was anything he could do about safe storage, but he said it was all legislative.
“To my knowledge, everything that could be done in regard to safe storage is legislative. Now, look, we talk about it, we can talk about the problem,” he responded.
“We want to make people aware of the problem. We certainly have done that; We’re going to continue to do that.”
Some Democrats and advocates are now pushing for a constitutional amendment to put gun safety regulations into law.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.
This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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