Submitted photo Rep. Darisha Parker joins other public officials in rolling out a new collaborative effort to educate residents about resources to address and prevent gun violence.

A Philadelphia-area Democrat wants to require long guns sold in Pennsylvania to be sold with a locking device.

Rep. Darisha Parker, D-Philadelphia, recently introduced House Bill 2435 with several fellow Democrats as co-sponsors. The bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee. The legislation faces an uphill fight to make it to the House floor.

State law currently requires licensed gun dealers to provide a locking device when selling handguns. That same requirement does not apply to long guns.

“It is vital that we protect the people of Pennsylvania by implementing better safe storage requirements. Safe firearm storage will reduce the prevalence of gun violence, as well as decrease theft and the trafficking of legally purchased firearms. Please join me in working toward mitigating gun violence and saving the lives of Pennsylvanians,” Parker wrote in her legislative memorandum.

Antique firearms would be excluded from the law, as would guns belonging to local, state and federal law enforcement officers. Violating the proposal, if it were to become law, would be a summary offense along the line of disorderly conduct, loitering, harassment or low-level retail theft punishable by a fine.

Eleven states currently have safe storage or gun lock requirements on the books, including Pennsylvania. New York’s SAFE Act, passed in 2013, included safe storage regulations. In 2019, the New York Legislature created a misdemeanor crime of failure to safely store rifles, shotguns and firearms for gun owners who don’t secure their firearms and live with a child under the age of 16.

“Our primary responsibility as legislators is to keep New York families safe,” said New York Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and sponsor of the legislation. “It’s simply common sense that young children should not have unsupervised access to dangerous weapons, and no responsible gun owner would disagree. Too many times, we have seen the tragic results when kids get their hands on guns. These tragedies are preventable, and today we took an important step that will save lives and keep families whole.”

A 2019 study published in the Journal of American Medicine found doing more to encourage adults who live in homes with youths to store firearms safely may prevent up to 32% of firearm deaths. The study’s authors noted fewer than one in three homes with youth and firearms follow American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations to store all household firearms locked and unloaded.

“As such, saving lives through promoting safer storage has great, but as yet unrealized, potential,” the study’s authors wrote. “Our findings suggest that a relatively modest improvement in firearm storage practices induced by a hypothetical intervention that prompted adults in households with youth to lock all household firearms could result in substantial, statistically significant reductions in firearm suicide and unintentional fatalities among U.S. youth.”