HB0279 Shear, Sue Farmer, Nancy

P R E F I L E D

HB 279 -- Children's Firearm Accident and Prevention Act

Co-Sponsors: Shear and Farmer

This bill makes it a class A misdemeanor for a person to knowingly possess a firearm in a place that the person knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone. Students who commit this act will be subject to expulsion from school by the proper school administrators. Exceptions to the crime include exceptions related to hunting, law enforcement, certain approved school uses, and travelling through the school zone.

The bill makes it a class A misdemeanor for a person to knowingly and with reckless disregard for the safety of another attempt to discharge or to discharge a firearm at a place that the person knows to be in a school zone. Students who commit this act will be subject to expulsion from school by the proper school administrators. Exceptions to the crime include exceptions related to hunting, law enforcement, certain approved school uses, and travelling through the school zone.

The bill also creates the crimes of criminal storage of a firearm in the first and second degrees. Criminal storage of a firearm in the first degree is a class D felony and occurs when a person keeps a loaded firearm on any premise under his or her control, knows or should reasonably know that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm, and the child gains access causing death or great bodily injury.

Criminal storage of a firearm in the second degree is class A misdemeanor that occurs when a person keeps a loaded firearm on any premise under his or her control, knows or should reasonably know that a child is likely to gain access to the loaded firearm, and the child gains access causing injury other than death or great bodily injury.

Exceptions to either crime of criminal storage occur if the firearm is kept in a locked container or equipped with a trigger locking devise, or if the child obtains a firearm as a result of an illegal entry into the premises of another person. Other exceptions which apply are also listed.

The bill requires law enforcement officers to delay an arrest for the crime of criminal storage of a firearm when the child is on life support or is in a seriously critical medical condition, if the alleged offender is the parent or guardian of the child. The bill prohibits parents or guardians of the child from being prosecuted except where they behaved in a grossly negligent manner or where similarly egregious circumstances exist.

Persons engaged in the retail transfer of firearms are required to conspicuously display a sign in their place of business which states, "Warning: Firearms must be stored safely away from children. Negligent or criminal storage of a firearm may result in civil or criminal liability." Failure to display this sign is a class A misdemeanor.

This bill adds carrying ammunition for a firearm or a projectile weapon onto a school bus or other vehicle used to transport children to or from school to the conducts that make up the class B misdemeanor of unlawful use of a weapon.