While details of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and ensuing investigation continue to trickle out through the media, news on the actions and possible motivations of the shooter remain scarce. Initial reports indicate the AR-style rifle the 20-year-old gunman used was one that his father had legally purchased in 2013 from a gun shop that is now out of business. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was still living with his parents in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, just over an hour away from the scene of the attack in Butler, Pennsylvania.
It is not known if Crooks had permission to have the firearm or if his parents were aware that he had it, but Fox News has reported that his parents, who are said to be fully cooperating with authorities, did call police the day of the shooting concerned because their son was “missing and they were worried.”
The report goes on to say, “It’s unclear what his parents told authorities.”
It is only speculation at this point, but it’s not unreasonable to wonder if they realized their son—and a firearm—were both missing, a combination of factors that spawned them to call authorities. Regardless of whether Crooks had permission or not, the outcome was a bad one. It is a situation that underscores the critical importance for gunowners, particularly parents, to keep their firearms safely and securely stored to prevent unauthorized access to them by children in the home, guests or intruders. It’s also a reminder to always make sure they are cautious about whom they grant access to those firearms as well.
“We don’t know what happened here, though it possibly hints at a case of unauthorized access. We just don’t know yet,” says Tom Kubiniec, CEO of SecureIt, a leading provider of safe gun storage solutions. “But when you look at all the data and statistics, if all the guns in America were properly secured, you’d have a lot of tragedies prevented each year.”
Safe Storage Is Easy…And Affordable
Kubiniec explains that when he says, “properly secured,” he means out of sight. He’s not a fan of trigger locks but admits if you don’t have anything besides one to secure a firearm then you should use it.
“They make it harder for you to access the gun when you need it quickly,” he says. Keeping a firearm merely hidden in a closet can also make it hard to access at a time of need should you be in another room or if it is in a standard gun case or hidden behind other items like clothing. Smaller biometric or fast-access safes for handguns like SecureIt’s Fast Box Model 20 or modular lock boxes designed for long guns such as their Fast Box Model 40 can be discreetly hidden in various spots about a home and accessed in seconds when a firearm is needed. Safe gun storage also doesn’t need to be expensive.
The company’s Fast Box Model 20 has room for four guns, can be accessed in mere seconds and costs just $178. Smaller handgun boxes such as SentrySafe’s Digital Gun Safe for a single handgun can be had for $100 while a basic lockbox for a single handgun from Hornady that can be secured and kept under combination lock is only $40. The price goes up for long gun storage, simply because of the larger size, but is still reasonable when you consider the risk. The SecureIt Fast Box Model 40 sells for $299, but no-name brand metal and lockable gun cabinets on Amazon can be had for as little as $90.
“A properly secured gun in a fast-access safe will provide faster access than a gun a in a closet,” Kubiniec says.
Safe Storage Laws
Safe storage isn’t just good, responsible policy in the home, particularly where children are present, but it may actually be required by law. Currently, 26 states have adopted some form of child access and/or secure storage laws, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun group funded by Michael Bloomberg. But Pennsylvania isn’t one of them.
“There are no such laws in Pennsylvania,” says Michael Giaramita, a Pennsylvania attorney who founded The Gun Law Firm and wrote Pennsylvania Gun Law Armed & Educated. “However, under 18 Pa.C.S. 6142, a licensed dealer is required to sell or provide a locking device to the transferee of any “firearm” excluding antiques. Because of the way “firearm” is defined under Section 6102, this relates mostly to modern handguns. The requirement does not apply if the design of the firearm incorporates a locking device. There are no requirements as to what must be done with the locking device after the transfer.”
Groups such as Everytown have championed these laws, but the effort is not without controversy and criticism. While, gun rights groups also encourage safe storage and responsible gun ownership, they generally oppose codifying such requirements based on the grounds that they can unnecessarily criminalize citizens through laws that can be difficult to enforce and are little more than governmental overreach into people’s private lives.
“The problem with these laws is the government regulating gun ownership flies in the face of our freedoms,” Kubiniec says. “Government regulation is never going to be good. It will start with wanting laws that require you to lock your guns but will expand into requirements on how to lock them and ultimately make it difficult to access your firearms when they are needed.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) recently promoted their “Gun Storage Check Week,” through retailers and the media to highlight the importance of reminding “firearms owners to review their storage practices with the goal of preventing unwanted access to their guns.” Gun Storage Check Week was observed June 1-7.
“Securely storing guns when they’re not in use can save lives. It’s really that simple,” says Joe Bartozzi, president and CEO of NSSF. “No one wants their gun in the hands of an unsupervised child, a person in crisis, someone who does not understand how to safely operate firearms or a thief.”
Of the states that have passed secure storage laws, Michigan’s caught the most attention recently as it went into effect Feb. 13, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of a shooting at Michigan State University that left four people dead and five wounded. On the first day after safe storage requirements went into effect there, Michael Tolbert, 44, was charged under the law after his 3-year-old daughter accessed a firearm and accidentally shot herself in the head. Just over a month after passage, grandparents Karl and Theresa Robart, were charged with violating gun storage laws when their 5-year-old grandson was shot and killed after his 6-year-old cousin got ahold of a gun in their home.
For Tolbert’s part, he was a convicted felon and already illegally possessed the firearm his daughter, Skye, accessed, so it’s not clear how the new laws will actually influence both legal gun owner and illegal gun owner behavior.
Michigan’s safe storage law also took effect just a week after Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who committed a mass shooting at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, in 2021 that left four people dead, was found guilty of manslaughter for her son’s actions. In the trial, Jennifer was found guilty of providing the firearm to her unstable son that he used in the shooting. Her husband and the boy’s father, James Crumbley, was found guilty on the same charges a month later. The case is notable as it marked the first time in U.S. history the parents of a mass shooter were held liable for their negligence in allowing access to a firearm. Their son had already been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
With Rights Comes Responsibility
Even in states without safe storage requirements, a parent who negligently allows their child to access their firearms and then the child commits a crime with that firearm, could find themselves in serious legal trouble similar to the Crumbleys. At the very least, such as in Pennsylvania, they may find themselves open to a serious lawsuit.
“If parents were to be sued, these cases are evaluated based upon a general negligence standard. Courts have gone through this in multiple contexts. In Johnson v. Johnson, a father provided his son with a gun that was later used in a fatal hunting accident. The Superior Court concluded that the father could be held liable. In Mendola v. Sambol, a father left a gun out and his eleven–year–old son used it in the shooting of another young child. The Superior Court concluded that he too could be held liable. In that case, the Court noted that ‘it is negligent to place loaded firearms or poisons within reach of young children or feebleminded adults,’” says Giaramita, who is also an independent program attorney for U.S. LawShield, a company that provides self-defense insurance products for gunowners and educates them on safe, legal gun practices.
When it comes to safe firearms storage, Giaramita says from a legal standpoint it is not so much “why” as “when” it is a good idea.
“I would lean more towards the importance of preventing access from those who do not have permission and being cautious about to whom one grants permission. If your negligence puts a gun in the hands of a child, a feeble-minded adult or anybody with bad intentions, and something horrible happens, you should expect to be sued,” says the attorney. And even if you avoid jail time in states where you may be subject to criminal charges or a hefty payment, defending yourself could take years and countless dollars paying legal fees that can leave you financially drained.
“If all gun owners would take that responsibility seriously, we could put this issue to bed,” says Kubiniec. “If every gun owner kept their guns secured, this issue goes away.”
In a best-case scenario, you ensure nobody is ever hurt from your firearm and possibly your child doesn’t make a life-ending or altering mistake. In a worst-case scenario, you must deal with the aftermath of innocent lives lost, the possible death of a child or other loved one or at the extreme end of the scale, the course of a presidential election and American history irrevocably altered, the negative fallout of which could be felt for generations. It’s really a pretty easy decision to make.
Editor’s Note: All product and gun reviews are performed independently and product mentions made based on the quality of the product and value of interest to gun owners. We offer links to mentioned products as a convenience to readers interested in learning more about each product, as well as to provide a fast, easy way to purchase that item if desired. Please note when you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission to help support the costs of operating our site and keeping it free for our visitors.
Yes safe firearms storage is everyone’s responsibility, but I am opposed to the state mandating this and all the requirements that come with this.
Hey, SCAMMER, get off here and go earn your $85 an hour instead of spamming like the loser you are.
Contributions to grifting pencilneck David “Attenion” Hogg’s PAC are down, both BloomBOIG & Soros have cut back on their online influencers thus we get spammed with this “make money from home” crap so Hogg can afford to buy his boyfriend, Jarron Bloshinsky (alias “Jazz Jennings”) new “Harris/Newsome” campaign gear.
Thanks Kammie/Gretchen for the socialist view – blame the victim of a home invasion not the thief.
“Biometric” = hell no to unreliable battery operated gimcrack.
Thank you. Totally agree. The NSSF just wants to sell more product. They don’t care about our rights just so long as they make more money.
The NSSF is the enemy in our our camp. Those bunch of snakes are more dangerous to our RKBA than a whole pack of moms demanding action or Gifford gonzos. Sarah Brady has nothing on the loose cannons from the NSSF careening around on our own deck smashing everyone who might atray into their paths and which will eventually knock holes in our own hull and send us all to the bottom.
The 20 y/o got permission from dad to take his rifle to the range.
Safe storage does not apply.
After a little while parents called the cops worried because they haven’t heard from their adult son. Tells me they knew he was a schizo of some sort to go full missing person after a couple of hours.
You are responsible if a family member takes your property and breaks the law with it.
If the family member crashes your car. You are responsible. Your insurance rates go up. Family insurance plan??? If they hit someone you can be sued. At a minimum.
Not a criminal act. If your brother takes your car and gets drunk and crashes while OWI your insurance isn’t going to pay one cent for that accident. You might get compensated for a stolen vehicle eventually but with a brother you better press charges and get a conviction because short of that your insurance wont and legally can’t insure an illegal act by you or your agent.
Vehicles are not enshrined in the Constitution. Firearms are. We are talking about the firearms in your HOME. Vehicle accidents are not in the home.
Neither were horses and buggies mentioned in the Constitution. The Constitution isn’t a permission slip of what The People are allowed to do -it’s a rule book of what the Government is allowed to do and also expressly not do. Just because something like driving an automobile or riding a horse isn’t mentioned in the Constitution doesn’t mean the government can limit your right to travel by any means you have at your disposal. The Bill of Rights does not “give” us any Rights.
Way back in the 1970s the NRA was sued. When unsecured guns were stolen out of an NRA club facility.
And used to commit crimes Including murder. They lost the case.
I remember my war gaming friend who was a sheriff deputy, said he was glad the NRA lost the case. He believed gun owners were responsible if their unsecured guns were stolen. And latter used in crimes.
An unsecured and loaded handgun, was stolen out of a government workers car in San Francisco. That gun was latter used to murder a tourist.
The government worker was never charged with leaving his loaded and unsecured gun in his car.
I guess it’s just OK if the government leaves guns unsecured.
A locked car IS secured. It’s harder to break into s properly locked car than one of those cheesey stamped tin biometric car safes. A screwdriver can pry them open or even a tire iron that exists inside every single automobile once you are inside. Many automobiles just don’t have the room inside for an actually effective gun safe for even the driver much less every passenger. Even in the trunk -which is an idiotic place to store a defensive tool, there isn’t much space unless you want to make it useless for hauling much else.
Make no mistake. Safe storage laws are just a Trojan horse to make it impossible eventually to leave a weapon behind in ANY vehicle. That’s the whole point. If you can’t leave it in the vehicle legally and can’t bring it inside legally then you can’t take it with you when you leave the house.
These antis have a strategy and Fudds in the NSSF and other well-meaning softheads are letting them right in door like vampires who can’t enter your dwelling unless they are invited.
I own thousands of firearms and a few dozen tons of ammunition. My house looks like a storage unit for the best gun store ever. I built my house to be secure and I doubt a SWAT could get into it without explosives. Since my stuff isn’t locked in a safe I would be considered in violation of the majority of safe storage laws.
Don’t let Joy or Whuppie find out. A white guy with as little as 50 rounds of ammo needs to be reported.
The corporate media are popping off about this 20yo possessing 50 rounds of ammo. 50 rounds in possession is now 50 rounds too many for anyone. According to the lemmings it’s time for full on control, limits, background checks, photos taken, barcode tattoos on the forehead, explosive neck bracelets (just a little exaggeration, no joke!). California as we know have put a few of the above requirements for ammo purchases.
Home carry, otherwise lock it up.
^this^
You can gun proof your children and still have them accessible if needed…You can’t childproof your guns and have them accessible when you need them and yes it is that simple. How do i know. Because I am living proof of it as well as numerous friends and children/grandchildren of those friends. It begins at at very early age with the most important rule you can teach a child. The ‘No Touchy Rule’ which also requires the appropriate discipline if it is violated and I don’t mean ‘Time Out’. I grew up in a home with loaded firearms leaning in the corners and on the gun rack of my fathers bedroom as well as in the kitchen for easy access in case of varmints in the hen house or chicken killing dogs. I learned very early in life about the dangers firearms presented, but more importantly the danger from my father if I messed with them. This entire argument has less to do with firearms than it does with the lack of parenting in our society. Parents being parents and not trying to be their children’s friends can solve a lot of the issues our society faces. Issues far removes from firearms and their use. Which in turn will make for a safer and more polite society for everyone involved.
You are exactly right. “Safety” or its extended form “It’s for the children!” invariably means “I am too weak, lazy, or ‘nice’ to micromanage my small children, therefore I demand the state micromanage every adult like small children.”
Safe storage of time-critical lifesaving equipment is accessible storage.
I have multiple gun safes in my man cave to keep my firearms secured. However; my children all knew the combinations of the gun safes back when they were teenagers. They were at liberty to access my firearms as well as their own for hunting, target practicing and perhaps self defense if it became necessary. I viewed keeping my firearms secured against my teenaged children as being just as ludicrous as keeping the car and tractor keys locked up so that they couldn’t have access to vehicles.
None of my children committed mass murders even though they were allowed unfettered access to firearms as well as vehicles. Of course neither of my boys got their girlfriend pregnant nor did my daughter get pregnant. I never had to bail any of them out of jail .
The problem isn’t teenagers having access to firearms. The problem is irresponsible parents raising kids to become predators.
On the flip side, I grew up in a home where the rifles and shotguns were stored propped up in a corner of a bedroom closet. When my grandfather began to exhibit symptoms similar to President Biden’s, I simply removed the firearms from the home.
I agree on the 100 percent of “irresponsible parents raising kids to become predators,” or at the very least, “irresponsible young people.” Working for gun and hunting magazines and often from home, I’ve had guns out in the home most of my children’s lives and they were all taught from the time they could walk, do not touch without asking, and even then, they also were taught safe gun handling. It’s so ingrained in them even in their late teens and I have one in her 20s, if they want to shoot or look at a firearm I am working on, they still ask if they can touch it. I think the problem is more poor parenting than anything else. My bigger concern is when they have friends over or living in suburbia, the possibility of a break in. My dad never stored his guns in anything but his closet when my brothers and I were growing up, but then someone broke in one day and walked out of the house with all of his handguns and from that point on, he bought a large safe and kept everything in there.
My gats & how they are stored are none yer business! Only very close friends/loved ones know what I got. Period.
Exactly. If every anti-gun wacko were to he raptured up to no-guns Nirvana tomorrow we would still have our rights eroded by Fudds like this who are more of an enemy to our RKBA than Sarah Brady or Gabby Giffords.
We have amongst us Fudds who are our own worst enemies.
I live alone. I lock my home when I leave. There. Safely stored. Seriously, most of my firearms are kept in large, heavy safes, but there is a loaded handgun in every room that I spend a minute in as well as two loaded long guns conveniently located. The only person with keys to my house and combinations to the safes are my adult son who has a CCW and has been shooting since he was a child. His birthday is next month. He collects Mil-Surp and likes to shoot quail. I have a “correct” Winchester M-1 carbine and a Randall old style #8 Trout & Bird waiting in the wings for him. He keeps a couple of things at his place, but he’s more paranoid about locking things up here than I am. Burglaries not safety is the concern.
Your home is a locked box. What more do these Fudds want but to eventually infringe on our RKBA?
Where’s your gun safe?
We’re inside it.
I live in a gun safe.
The kids are grown and moved away, and no grandkids have come along. Do I have to “safely store” firearms my wife doesn’t know I have?
Mark, repeat after me, “This old thing? I’ve had it for years. I just got it to wipe it down. Oh, I was thinking about taking you out for dinner tonight. Where would you like to go?”
The ‘safe storage’ monster once again rears its ugly head. My question for those who wish to force such requirements is this: when y’all can absolutely positively guarantee that no one will commit a criminal act to access guns that they have no right to access, I ‘might’ consider upgrading my storage plans. Remember, even military arms rooms (about as ‘secure’ as it comes) get broken into or suffer internal theft. Same thing happens to gun shops.
Seems to me that onerous (and expensive) requirements on private parties is part of the overall disarm Citizens plan being foisted on us by totalitarians. Example – being required to put grandpa’s 100 year old shotgun you inherited in a thousand dollar safe, with alarms and surveillance video.
It’s also part of the plan of the greedy section of the gun industry selling these safes, trigger locks, and other “safety” paraphernalia which wants to force us to buy their products. They have a lot of pull in the NSSF so that’s why these shills are constantly writing articles like these in gun forums and sites.
Back when there was a big fight for and against motorcycle helmet laws the helmet manufacturers were all about passing more helmet laws too for the exact same reasons.
I tell you that the National Shooting Sports Foundation is not a friend to the RKBA or the 2A. They are friend.of the companies who want us to be forced to buy their products.
The author is a compensated stooge, a greasy used car salesman, he’s just as bad as those annoying squeegee-man shakedown artists (“kids”) soliciting contributions to Shriner’s hospital during every comnercial break.
NSSF trash
Is there no end to this Fuddery?
No there isn’t, these busybody nanny-staters will pester us forever.
RAND’s research on Child Access Prevention and Safe Storage Laws supports this article.
https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/child-access-prevention.html
“Rand” eh? Of course Rand supports this crap, they’re the original Deep State cabal, if it was up to them we’d all be disarmed.
“Safe storage” is an infringement upon our rights, better that others be taught from an early age to keep their grubby paws off our *hit.
Gee JD Vance’s memaw (grandmother) had NINETEEN (19), yes NINETEEN loaded handguns strategically stashed around her home when she passed away yet no one visiting her ever shot themselves nor did they shoot anyone else accidentally/negligently, “why?” you ask, well it’s because visitors to her home were raised right and taught not to mess with other’s belongings.
Advanced in age Sen. JD Vance’s grandmother had difficulty getting around in her own home so she secreted NINETEEN (19) handguns so there would always be one close including stuffing one in the silverware drawer, that’s what one resorts to in order to protect oneself when the Democrat”s “faithful” ie. drug addicts, burgulars, rapists, murderers, and run-of-the-mill criminals are left free to roam your community.
We should NEVER willingly or be mandated to alter OUR behavior due to someone else’s inability/refusal to respect OUR possessions.
Sen. JD Vance’s grandmother had NINETEEN (19), yes NINETEEN loaded handguns strategically stashed around her home when she passed away yet no one visiting her ever shot themselves nor did they shoot anyone else accidentally/negligently. “Why?” you may ask, well it’s because visitors to her home were raised right and taught not to mess with other’s belongings.
Advanced in age Vance’s grandmother had difficulty getting navigating her own home so she secreted NINETEEN (19) handguns thus there would always be one close including stuffing one in the silverware drawer, that’s what one resorts to in order to protect oneself when the Democrat”s “faithful” ie. drug addicts, burglars, ®@pists, murd€®€®s, and run-of-the-mill criminals are left free to roam your community.
We should NEVER willingly or be mandated to alter OUR behavior due to someone else’s inability/refusal to respect OUR possessions.
“Moderation” for what? What kind of light-in-the-loafers limpwrists are running TTAG these days? F-in’ pansies.
You can tell a tree by its fruit TTAG tells us exactly who they are with every BS moderated post and fuddy article like this streaming pile.
Some of the good TTAG authors founded a new site.
Then they took all the shiddy ones with them.
Bullying by kids has been around since the dawn of man but “social” media puts it in afterburner. This has in recent years proven to be the “trigger” for some. Parents need to be involved with their chillins’ to spot trouble. Not wrong to keep blasters away from little Billy when he comes home a’cryin. Me, I made a pact with the good lord to not reproduce in exchange for some free range poontang.
Point is that firearms are designed to destroy things and living beings. They have no moral values and intentions, and therefore is the responsibility of the owner/keeper to ensure that no (unwanted) harm can come from those firearms.
I have all my long firearms stored in a safe, their bolt separated and kept under a different lock.
This choice was dictated by old army habits as well as the savings in storage place given that sticking out bolt handles require more space.
Pistols are kept in a smaller safe, and ammo in another (again) different place.
Why this? I wouldn’t say not for my children, because they have been educated from the beginning not to fear nor be silly with firearms.
The reasons are that a few of my firearms are expensive, and if they are stolen it would be an economic loss. And I hate to lose money.
Then there is the fact that a weapon stolen is a weapon I cannot use if I need it, and this would be pretty disappointing.
Finally, I am responsible (legally and, most important, morally) of the consequences of their use. And I don’t want to know that I haven’t done all my best to avoid it.
Should the government have some say in the way I keep my firearms? In a perfect world .gov should give advice about the best technical features and techniques of safe firearm keeping, and in the case of criminal use of them check whether the owner has been sensible in preventing misuse of them.
But we know too well that in many cases .gov doesn’t care about people’s rights, following instead an alternative agenda benefitting just a few…
Bolts removed and under a separate lock.
Good for you elmer fudd. This is the USA. Guns are everywhere as they SHOULD be. Nobody can take guns away and keep guns away from bad guys. They will always find one if they want one. It’s getting to the point now where you can print one just as easily as filling out the paperwork to buy one legally
I’m sure you have a mower or other piece of equipment like a chainsaw or something that burns fuel. Do you have those disassembled and locked up in seperate locked compartments in case those are stolen and used in a heinous violent crime? Someone evil could just take your small jug and pour it on someone at a bus stop and strike a match.
Are you “responsible (legally and, most important, morally) of the consequences of their use” should they e stolen and misused – or.does this high-horse “morality” ONLY apply to evil firearms? What if someone steals your car and uses it in a drive-by, or just mows down innocent parade watchers on the fourth of july? Maybe you should be removing the steering wheel or even the engine every time you leave it unsupervised in your locked garage.
Your Fuddery is fooling nobody who has a clue.
So, someone, (or multiple someones,) knows you have all these goodies…
They break into your house, and you have NO viable method of defense because you’ve not only LOCKED THEM UP, but you have put the stuff that makes them go bang! in a DIFFERENT LOCKED UP BOX!
They hold a knife to your wife/offspring/significant others’ neck and DEMAND you open your safes…
Whaddya gonna do, Mr. Fudd?
Calling me Fudd is the same rhetorical technique that the old commies have been mastering for more than a century: i.e. in a debate you must insult the interlocutor you don’t agree with.
However, given my fondness for blued steel and well oiled wood, I do admit that the title fits pretty well.
Please allow me to explain that my PDW is all but locked away when I am at home, and I happen to be away from home during the day, so there is no point in having ready to use weapons scattered all around the house.
And when there is nobody home, my arrangement with the safes is the best I can do.
I know that with time and skill there aren’t unopenable safes, but it’s better than the unbrella holder.
Comments are closed.