On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance controversial legislation that would hold parents criminally responsible if their child brings their gun onto a school campus, even if the weapon is not used in any sort of criminal mischief.
House Bill 123 (HB123) is sponsored by State Rep. Barbara Drummond.
“This bill does not violate anyone’s Second Amendment right,” Drummond told the committee. “This is a bill that makes parents responsible.”
State Rep. Tim Wadsworth asked, “A parent can be charged with a crime?”
“Yes, if that weapon is not reasonably secured,” said Drummond. Drummond explained that “reasonably secured” could “be a trigger lock, in a lockbox, or a gun safe,” but is not defined exclusively by those means.
Rep. Shane Stringer asked, “Can we do a bill that says if a weapon is used.”
Drummond responded, “I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and see that weapon was used on a school. There is a responsibility to being a parent.”
Drummond explained that the gun would have to belong to the parent or guardian.
The committee approved an amendment to change the penalty from a Class D felony to a Class A misdemeanor.
Rep. David Faulkner asked if the parent would be criminally liable if the child brought the gun to school, even if the gun was determined to be “reasonably secured” with a trigger lock.
“If it is brought to school with a trigger lock, it would be ‘reasonably secured,’” under this bill, Drummond answered.
Rep. David Standridge said, “I represent a rural district where hunting is popular.”
Standridge explained that his area had had an incident where a student went hunting after school and forgot to take the rifle out of his truck, so they went to school the next day with the rifle still in the gun rack. Standridge asked if this bill would apply to an incident like that.
“This is 17 and under,” Drummond replied. “That older student who is going hunting this would not address this.”
Stringer asked, “How would this affect other people in the household?”
“This is germane only to the parents,” Drummond said. “There is a ton of guns that are being confiscated on school campuses.”
Wadsworth asked, “What if it was a grandparent?”
Drummond answered, “This applies to parent or guardian.”
“Most grandparents who look after their grandchildren do not get legal guardianship,” Wadsworth said.
State Rep. Christopher England said, “What you are doing is not a foreign concept to the law. In juvenile court, we charge parents with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. All we are talking about is responsible gun owners. If you are a responsible gun owner you should not have a problem with this bill.”
A total of three amendments were added to the bill in committee.
HB123 received a favorable report in a close vote. The bill can be considered by the full House of Representatives as early as Thursday.
Thursday will be day 10 of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
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