Requires background checks for nearly all gun purchases, except certain private transfers.
Call Senator Mike Braun at 202-224-4814 or 317-822-8240 or write by going to his website.
Call Senator Todd Young at 202-224-5623 or 317-226-6700 or email him through his website.
Authored by Fady Qaddoura
“Again, our Republican super-majority has failed to provide this important legislation with a hearing which is typical of firearm bills that would enhance public safety” (2/26/2021)
DIGEST: Storage of firearms. Prohibits a person from keeping or storing a firearm on any premises controlled by the person if one or more of the following conditions apply: (1) The person knows, or reasonably should know, that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm. (2) A permanent or temporary resident of the premises is disqualified, ineligible, or prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal or state law. (3) A permanent or temporary resident of the premises poses a risk of imminent personal injury to himself or herself or any other individual. Provides that a failure to secure a firearm that results in injury to, or the death of, another person is a Level 6 felony. Enhances the offense to a Level 5 felony if the person has a prior, unrelated conviction for the offense. Specifies certain defenses.
Authored by Sen. Lonnie Randolph
“Our Republican super-majority has failed to provide this important legislation with a hearing which is typical of firearm bills that would enhance public safety” (2/26/2021)
DIGEST: Prohibition of firearms at polling places. Prohibits a person from carrying a firearm in, on, or near: (1) a chute; (2) polls; (3) areas where voters congregate or are likely to congregate; or (4) any room where ballots are being counted. Provides that the offense is a Class C misdemeanor. Enhances the offense to a: (1) Class A misdemeanor if the person has a prior unrelated conviction for the offense; or (2) Level 6 felony if the person points the firearm at another person.
Letter to the Star 2/4/2021, page AS15
An argument between Raymond Childs and his father was followed by Raymond killing five members of the family and wounding his younger brother. Knowing of this, the mayor stated that the city would pursue whomever may have supplied the firearms illegally to Raymond, who is 17 and not entitled to own a firearm. From newspaper reports, it appears the firearms belonged to his father, who was killed by his son.
Homicide within families is not rare. The FBI reported that, in 2019, 13% of all homicide victims were killed by family members. Two factors make this family tragedy uncommon. The first is the number of victims, and the second, that the perpetrator was only 17. Had the weapons been safely stored by the father, these killings would have been much less likely to occur. Raymond would have had to go and obtain a weapon somewhere and then return. By then, his anger could have cooled.
Preventing these kinds of tragedies is a goal of Senate Bill 285, introduced by state Sen. Fady Qaddoura of Indianapolis, requiring safe storage of firearms in a household with anyone under 18, as are Raymond and his brother. Laws like SB 285 exist in many states and have been shown to meaningfully decrease child and adolescent firearm suicides and accidental deaths. Killings of family members by adolescents are rare, but school shootings have been studied, and vast majority of those committed by youths were committed with guns obtained from a family member, relative or friend.
Mandated safe storage with felony penalties if someone is illegally hurt or killed with the firearm would make this kind of access to weapons harder for adolescents and other children. This would lessen the likelihood of school shootings by minors. Sen. Qaddoura’s bill deserves a hearing.
Stephen Dunlop, M.D.
Board member of Hoosiers Concerned about Gun Violence
Authored by Rep Ben Smaltz, Republican
Co-Authored by Republicans Matt Lehman, Timothy Wesco and Jim Lucas
Sponsored by Republicans, Erin Houchin, Mark Messmer, Eric Koch, Aaron Freeman, and Chris Gartin
“This bill passed by the house on 2/22/2021 with all Republican Committee members in favor and Democratic members opposed. The elimination of a license which requires a background check to carry firearms on our streets will increase gun violence on our streets and be a increased detriment to public safety.” (2/26/2021)
Firearms matters. Effective March 30, 2022: (1) Repeals the law that requires a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana; (2) Specifies that certain persons who are not otherwise prohibited from carrying or possessing a handgun are not required to obtain or possess a license or permit from the state to carry a handgun in Indiana; (3) Prohibits certain individuals from knowingly or intentionally carrying a handgun; (4) Creates the crime of “unlawful carrying of a handgun”; (5) Provides that a prohibited person who knowingly or intentionally carries a handgun commits a Class A misdemeanor; (6) Specifies that the unlawful carrying of a handgun is a Level 5 felony if a person: (A) is less than 23 years of age; and (B) has an adjudication as a delinquent child for an act described by IC 35-47-4-5 (unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon); (7) Allows a resident of Indiana who wishes to carry a firearm in another state under a reciprocity agreement entered into by Indiana and the other state to obtain from the superintendent of the state police department a reciprocity license; (8) Requires law enforcement agencies to make use of certain data bases when issuing reciprocity licenses; (9) Specifies the following fees for reciprocity licenses: (A) $0 for five year reciprocity licenses, and (B) $75 for lifetime reciprocity licenses; (10) Provides that a person who knowingly or intentionally exerts unauthorized control over a firearm of another person with the intent to deprive the person of any part of its value or use commits theft, a Level 5 felony; and (11) Allows for the imposition of an additional fixed term of imprisonment when a person knowingly or intentionally: (A) points; or (B) discharges; a firearm at someone the person knew, or reasonably should have known, was a first responder. Effective July 1, 2021: (1) Provides that the following must develop a process that allows law enforcement officers the ability to quickly access information about whether a person is a prohibited person who may not knowingly or intentionally carry a handgun: (A) The state police department; (B) The bureau of motor vehicles; (C) Local law enforcement agencies; and (D) Any other state entity with access to information related to persons who may not knowingly or intentionally carry a handgun; (2) Provides that the information made available to law enforcement officers must meet all state and federal statutory, constitutional, and regulatory requirements; and (3) Allows state entities to enter into a memorandum of understanding to ensure that all legal requirements are met
Gun violence prevention advocates across the nation struggle to understand the increased gun violence that we are experiencing and what to do about it. Media reports assure us that what we see locally is not unique to Indiana, as cities nationwide share contributors to violence. Long familiar issues compounded by COVID-19 get most of the blame: people out of work, social isolation, tension and anger in the home, killings associated with drug deals, resentment of people who are easy to target – all exacerbated by nationwide record sales in firearms (See “How Many Guns Did Americans Buy Last Month?” in News Links below).
Those very real contributors demand community-based, root-cause solutions. One promising discussion in Indianapolis is how to expand the scope and capacity of an existing violence interrupter initiative. Alongside root-cause realities, Hoosiers Concerned wants the public to recognize companion realities: Guns are too easy to acquire by purchase or theft, too at-hand to settle disputes or lead to accidental shootings, too much relied on for personal protection. Given that, we are dismayed that year after year, members of the Indiana General Assembly put forward policies that would put us all at greater risk. Those measures are even more troubling at a time like the present when unrelenting violence should make it evident that more guns on the streets, in public places, in our schools and homes take us in exactly the wrong direction.
Three bills were filed this year that would move us in the right direction. At the time of this writing, their fates are not determined. HB1006 (updated below) would require the Indiana law enforcement training board to establish mandatory training in de-escalation as part of the use-of-force curriculum. SB173 would prohibit bringing firearms to or near polling places. Senator Qaddoura’s SB285, would require secure storage for firearms in the home. Practices like safe storage that make it harder to go grab a gun won’t by themselves reverse the trend of rampant gun violence, but they are practical means to save lives, complement other violence prevention strategies and deserve Hoosiers’ support.
In the meantime, again, we’re speaking out against bills that enable violence. Among ill-conceived bills introduced this year are: HB1027, the latest in a series of bills filed every year to provide handgun training for teachers; HB1034, HB1232 and HB1369, each of which would repeal the requirement that a person must obtain a license to carry a firearm; HB1295 that would eliminate gun free zones, and SB302 which would permit state employees and officers to carry handguns at the Indiana Government Center. Those initiatives come from a narrow, reactionary viewpoint and do not reflect the sound judgment of most Hoosiers who favor reasonable regulations.
by Dr. Steven Dunlop
According to the Indiana Department of Health there were 251 firearm homicides in Indiana in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available. Homicide in Indiana is mostly an urban problem, four urban counties with 1/3 of the population account for 2/3rds of the homicides.
Homicide impacts the black community most heavily, which experienced 50% of the homicides while being only 9.5% of the population. Young black men are especially at risk. For young black men ages 15-24, homicide was the leading cause of death, accounting for 61% of all deaths in this age group, with a rate of 93 per 100,000. For white males the same ages the rate was 3 per 100,000 and 3% of all deaths. Homicide is also the leading cause of death for black men ages 25-34, the rate is 117 per 100,000, and accounts for 43% of all deaths, but for white males the same ages the homicide rate is only 6 per 100,000 and homicides account for 4% of all deaths.
Most homicides are intra-racial, blacks killing blacks and whites killing whites. Beyond race and age, we know of other very significant risk factors for those likely to commit a homicide: a history of substance abuse, a criminal history, failure to complete high school, and unemployment. Access to a firearm is also significant. Homicides in young black males ages 15-34 were by firearm 86% of the time. We know most homicides of males occur outside of the home and most occur with a weapon brought to the scene. We know that many are not committed in the course of another crime but are precipitated by an argument or other dispute.
As an example, I saw a young man in the hospital who had beaten his girl friend and was threatened by her brother. Despite a history of assault and a restraining order, he was carrying a gun for protection after he left the hospital. He went to see the girlfriend who was staying with her grandparents. When the grandfather confronted him, he impulsively pulled the gun and killed him, and moments later his wife. I feel certain that his altercation with the older man would not have led to homicides if he didn’t have the gun.
What is the public health response to this information? Public health embraces primary prevention, like lowering cholesterol and stopping smoking before the onset of heart disease. Primary prevention of gun homicidal violence would include measures such as more young men through high school, better treatment for substance abuse and other mental health problems, especially for minority populations, and improving access to jobs through training and public transportation. These measures are frequently mentioned in discussions of the homicide problem in Indianapolis.
These measures take a long time to have effects, and in the meantime there will be a pool of young men without good prospects, of whom a small percentage will be inclined to criminal behavior.
The next thing to think about is secondary prevention, making access to firearms more difficult for those not entitled to them by criminal history, age or mental illness. Unfortunately, in our city, we are completely failing in keeping guns out of the wrong hands. High school students report ease in buying guns. We seem to accept that every bad guy can have easy access to a gun as an immutable fact of life.
We need to change our thinking and reconsider the focus of law enforcement and our lack of sensible gun regulation. We need law enforcement that targets gun trafficking and closely scrutinizes and uses sting operations on those gun stores that are the source of more than usual crime guns. Better regulation means implementation of universal background checks for gun sales, requirements for the reporting of lost or stolen guns, and limitations on the number of handguns one person can purchase. Together these efforts can make guns more difficult to obtain, and in states and cities where they are practiced, gun violence is less.
If you don’t keep the guns out of the wrong hands, then the next step is what I would call tertiary prevention, keeping people without a permit from carrying guns.
Towns in the Old West knew keeping guns off the streets was important. Adam Winkler writes about a photograph taken in Dodge City in 1879. “Everything looks exactly as you’d imagine: wide, dusty road; clapboard and brick buildings; horse ties in front of the saloon. Yet right in the middle of the street is something you’d never expect. There’s a huge wooden billboard announcing,
While people were allowed to have guns at home for self-protection, frontier towns usually barred anyone but law enforcement from carrying guns in public.”
Another historian has noted that towns that prohibited young men carrying guns had much lower homicide rates than those that did not. Here in the US, New York City makes it much harder to get a permit to carry and also strictly enforces laws against carrying without a permit. The homicide rate for that city has gone down steadily over several years to 1/3 of that for Indianapolis.
What should we do? I do not believe the 30% increases we have seen in homicides in the last few years reflects a big increases in the number of people at risk for this behavior. I believe it reflects increased access to weapons and carrying of weapons.
I think we should focus on actions directed at these two problems that should quickly bring results while we work toward primary prevention. We need to do more to keep guns out of the wrong hands and strictly enforce penalties for carrying illegal guns, not just after one commits a crime but before that.
When police apprehend someone for any reason that is carrying illegally, that person should expect to spend time in jail. Many homicides occur because someone is carrying a gun that shouldn’t be and finds themselves in a confrontation. Secondary and tertiary prevention can bring rapid and profound decreases in homicides rates when the tools are available and used effectively as seen in NYC, Boston, and Los Angeles.
“Gun Violence in the Crosshairs”, Indianapolis Star February 20, reported the city’s efforts to decrease gun violence. Their strategy is to place primary focus on guns that are illegally possessed and on those who carry them, including adding four police detectives, one sergeant and additional staff to the Gun Crime Intelligence Center.
We applaud community interventions such as the Voice program described in the article, but we must point out that missing was discussion of easy access to guns in Indiana. Under Indiana law it is legal for private sellers to sell all types of firearms without background checks at gun shows, on the internet and on our streets. As a result, streets of Indianapolis are awash with guns. Bills introduced to the General Assembly in 2019 and 2020 which would have required background checks on all firearm sales in Indiana did not receive committee hearings. In 2018, we formed a coalition simply to ask that the bill receive a committee hearing in 2019. An email and follow-up to the mayor’s office asking Mayor Hogsett to support that effort received no reply. Nor did a request to Chief Roach’s office.
The need for increased staff to help get guns off our streets is a result of the failure to address how the guns are getting on our streets.
Jerry King, President
Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence
Two bills before the Indiana General Assembly are not scheduled for committee hearings even though they address matters urgently important to Hoosiers. Both are assigned to the Senate’s Corrections and Criminal Law Committee. SB 28 would close critical gaps in background checks for purchase of firearms. SB 29 would require guns in homes to be stored securely to keep them from children.
Universal background checks (UBCs) are fundamental in helping to keep guns out of the hands of felons, seriously mentally ill persons, and others excluded under the current system that applies to gun dealers. However, firearms are readily available in Indiana for purchase by anyone through private sales without a background check, at gun shows, on the internet and on the streets. In a survey of gun owners who had obtained a firearm in the last two years, 22% said they were able to do so without background checks.
Nationwide, states with UBC laws experience lower rates of homicide than those without, which might be why support for comprehensive background checks was 69% of NRA members, 78% among gun owners who are not NRA members and 89% for respondents who don’t own a firearm.
SB 29’s proposal – that gun owners must store their guns in a way that prevents a child from getting one – simply should not be controversial. Safe storage helps prevent accidental shootings, teen suicides, impulsive domestic violence and trafficking in stolen firearms. Because most guns used in school shootings are taken from the home, safe storage would help to prevent school shootings and be safer than coping with a gun at school.
Employers especially have a stake in reducing gun violence. In 2017, 351 gun homicides happened in workplaces. Since 1999, mass shootings in workplaces were four times the number in schools. And communities that experience gun violence see lower property values, decline in economic growth and business startups and loss of jobs.
Hoosiers deserve public dialogue addressing access to guns in relation to gun violence, beginning with committee hearings for Background Checks and Safe Storage. Starting earnest consideration of these measures should not wait for next year’s long session. Sensible legislation to reduce gun violence perennially fails in the General Assembly because legislators underestimate the depth of support for those measures among Hoosier voters. The solution for that perception problem is for people who know better to speak up.
Jerry King, President
Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence
Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence held a Vigil on December 12 at City Market to read the names of homicide victims killed by firearms in Marion County in the past twelve months. This was our contribution to the National Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence this weekend coordinated by the Newtown Action Coalition for the second anniversary of the Newtown shootings.
We read the 96 names available of the 139 firearm shootings reported. Stephen Dunlop, MD gave a short address on the public health implications of this epidemic particularly affecting young black men emphasizing the need to get guns off the street while we work to lower the number of young men at high risk to be drawn into criminal activity by creating better job opportunities and education. Photos from the event are of Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne reading the opening prayer and Rev. Roger Heimer reading names