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What happens if someone gets a hold of your firearm and shoots someone?

For adults, owning and safely operating a firearm is a serious responsibility. The liability rises when someone shoots someone with your firearm and it rises exponentially when you introduce children into the picture. If you choose to keep a firearm for home security, your objective should be to create a situation in which the firearm is readily available to you, yet inaccessible or inoperative to others. As a Texas parent who owns a gun or multiple guns, the statue of the law requires that you safely secure your firearms from minors.

Local defense attorney from SugarLand, TX, Shawn McDonald breaks down gun laws to help Texans understand their rights and responsibility as gun owners. For parents of minors, you can be charged if your child or someone else’s child gains access to a firearm in your home and harms themselves or someone else. Although you might have trained your child in gun safety and instructed them to not access the guns, you still have the ultimate culpability if a firearm is accessed in your home and hurts someone else.

McDonald shares that the statute states that the following conditions could land you in trouble with Texas law:

  • The parent has a readily dischargeable firearm.
  • The parent fails to secure the firearm.
  • The parent knew or should have known a child would gain access.

Safe storage is employing precautions and multiple safeguards to minimize unauthorized access to your guns. You could store guns in locked cabinet, safe, gun vault or storage case. There are also gun locking devices that make a firearm inoperable. Unloading a gun and storing it in a bedside drawer or closet is not considered safe storage.

No matter what safety precautions you take, you must be committed to safe handling and storage rules for firearms. This not only protects you but those around you who could be affected by your negligence.