Gun Safety That Works: Stopping Gun Theft Before It Happens
There is a significant gap in the national debate on gun control policy. The overwhelming focus has been on laws that do little or nothing to protect people from the daily street crime happening in communities across the country. Far too little attention has been paid to stolen handguns and to preventing guns from being stolen in the first place.
Home invasions and vehicle thefts happen every day, and in many cases they result in firearms being stolen. A criminal should not be able to smash a car window and walk away with a bag full of guns in a matter of minutes. Yet right now, in most of America, that is exactly what can happen with minimal consequence for anyone.
Only 16 states and the District of Columbia require gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm. Think about that for a moment. There is no federal law requiring the secure storage of guns. A child safety lock may be included with a firearm purchase, but there is no meaningful requirement to use it and a trigger lock does nothing to prevent a gun from being stolen the way a certified lock box or gun safe would. A handful of states have enacted safe storage laws. Most have not.
Under current law, someone can leave a loaded gun in a glove compartment, have it stolen, and face no legal consequences even if that gun is later used to kill someone. Someone can own a dozen firearms and store them all in an unlocked closet without violating a single law. That has to change.
The scale of this problem is not small. From 2017 through 2021, more than 1.07 million firearms were reported stolen an average of roughly 200,000 guns per year entering criminal hands. That is an enormous and largely preventable source of violent crime that still does not receive the attention it deserves.
This policy should have broad support from Democrats, Republicans, the NRA, and every responsible gun owner in America. Because responsible gun ownership means keeping your firearm out of the wrong hands. No serious gun owner wants their legally purchased weapon used to commit a crime.
The Problem
While many politicians focus almost exclusively on mass shootings, the vast majority of gun violence in America happens one bullet at a time with stolen handguns used in robberies, assaults, and drive by shootings. Hundreds of thousands of firearms are stolen each year, typically from unsecured vehicles and homes. These weapons flow directly into the illegal gun market, fueling street crime across the country, with almost no accountability for how they got there.
The Solution: Secure Storage
I am proposing a federal Secure Storage Law that requires firearms to be locked when not under the owner's direct control just as we require drivers to wear seat belts and parents to use car seats. The principle is the same safety standards exist because the consequences of negligence fall on innocent people.
Here is what the law would require:
- Every firearm must be stored in a certified lock box or gun safe when not under the owner's direct control in both vehicles and homes.
- If a firearm is stolen because it was not properly secured, the owner can be held legally accountable.
- Gun owners must report stolen firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours, with no exceptions.
Why This Matters
- More than 80% of stolen guns are handguns, and many are used in crimes within days of being taken.
- In cities across the United States, guns stolen from cars have become the single largest source of illegal firearms on the street.
- This law protects families, communities, and gun owners themselves by helping ensure their firearms are never used to harm someone else.
This is not a gun ban. It is a safety standard. If you can afford a $500 handgun, you can afford a $50 lock box. Requiring responsible storage will not prevent anyone from purchasing a firearm. It can prevent someone else from stealing one and using it to commit a crime.
Enhanced Secure Storage Standards
To prevent stolen firearms from fueling street crime, all gun owners would be required to secure their firearms using storage devices that meet minimum certified safety standards.
Handguns
Must be secured in a DOJ certified lock box or equivalent device that meets all of the following:
- Constructed of steel or hardened equivalent material
- Features a tamper resistant locking mechanism key, combination, or biometric
- Meets at least one of the following certifications: California DOJ Firearm Safety Device standards, UL 1037 or UL 1610 standards (Underwriters Laboratories), or ASTM F2456 pry resistance specifications
Rifles and Shotguns
Must be stored in a gun cabinet or safe that meets the following:
- Features a mechanical or electronic lock
- Is bolted to a structural element or floor, or weighs more than 150 pounds to prevent easy removal
- Meets UL Residential Security Container (RSC) certification or California DOJ approval
Firearms Stored in Vehicles
- Must be placed in a hard sided, opaque, locked container secured within the vehicle
- The vehicle itself must be locked
- If stored in a soft case such as a rifle bag, a trigger or cable lock meeting equivalent safety standards is required
Proof of Compliance
At the time of purchase, buyers must attest that they already possess compliant storage or purchase it on site. Following acquisition of a new firearm, owners would confirm compliance through law enforcement either by bringing the storage device to a designated location or through a home verification process, depending on the type of firearm and storage required. Annual confirmation would also be required to verify that owners maintain appropriate storage for the number of firearms they own.
Retailers would be incentivized to stock certified storage devices and offer discounts or bundled pricing. A tax credit would be available for first time safe purchases to reduce the financial barrier for law abiding gun owners.
Why Certification Standards Matter
Not all safes and lock boxes are created equal. Many inexpensive models can be defeated in seconds with basic tools. By requiring storage devices that meet tested, certified standards, this policy reduces the likelihood of theft and strengthens accountability for gun owners. It supports responsible owners who already take security seriously, while making it meaningfully harder for stolen guns to fuel daily street crime.
Links - Examples of Storage Devices That Meet These Standards:
How This Proposal Compares to Washington's HB 1152
Washington State's HB 1152 addressed secure storage but fell short in several important ways. It contained no specific technical standards for lock boxes or safes only vague general requirements which makes enforcement and compliance difficult to measure or verify. It also required handguns stored in vehicles to be kept unloaded, which is a provision likely to undermine the law's political viability and creates a practical safety concern. In an emergency such as an attempted carjacking, a gun owner who retrieves their secured firearm may not have the time to load it. If the firearm is properly secured, there should be no additional requirement that it be unloaded.
My proposal addresses both of these weaknesses. HB 1152, for its part, did not pass and is no longer active legislation.
How This Proposal Compares to Ethan's Law
Ethan's Law, which passed the House in June 2022 but has stalled in the Senate, focuses primarily on preventing unauthorized access by minors and prohibited individuals within homes. My proposal goes further in several key respects.
Scope and specificity: My policy covers all firearms, establishes concrete technical standards for storage devices, and explicitly addresses vehicle storage areas Ethan's Law does not fully reach.
Enforcement and compliance: My proposal includes proactive measures including mandatory proof of compliant storage at the point of purchase and annual verification, while Ethan's Law relies primarily on after the fact penalties following an incident.
Preventive focus: My policy directly addresses theft prevention as a driver of street crime not only the issue of child access.
My proposal is more comprehensive, more enforceable, and more directly targeted at the source of illegal firearms on American streets.
Secure Storage and School Shootings
Proper secure storage of firearms would also help prevent teenagers from accessing parents' guns one of the most common pathways to school shootings. This is not a peripheral benefit. It is a direct and significant public safety outcome of making secure storage the law.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
Real Safety. Not Soundbites.
This is not about ideology. It is about facts, accountability, and saving lives. Legal gun owners are not the enemy. Unsecured guns are. Let's address the actual source of the problem and make gun safety work for everyone.
If elected to Congress in 2026, this will be one of my top legislative priorities.
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