Protecting Our Kids Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Protecting Our Kids Act, a comprehensive package to address gun violence in the United States. I am pleased that it includes my legislation, Ethan's Law, which will keep kids across the country safe by ensuring that firearms are safely stored and secured.

I introduced Ethan's Law in the House over 3 years ago in memory of Ethan Song, a Guilford, Connecticut, teenager, 15 years old, who accidentally shot himself with an unsecured gun in 2018. The firearm was improperly stored in a Tupperware box with the gun lock keys and the ammunition nearby.

Before I had the honor of introducing Ethan's Law in Congress, it passed the Connecticut General Assembly and the State senate with broad bipartisan support, signed into law in 2019. Today, we take a critical step to make Ethan's Law the national standard in safe storage.

Ethan's Law will set a Federal standard for safe gun storage and incentivize States to create and implement safe gun storage laws. This legislation is a child safety bill, first and foremost, because losing just one child to accidental gun violence is too many.

What happened to Ethan was tragic. No parent should have to lose their child because of an unsecured gun. It is time for Congress to act.

In the words of Ethan Song's parents, Mike and Kristin Song, whose relentless advocacy led us to this moment: ``Not a single person on Earth can change the past, but every one of us can change the future.'' Let's change the future while saving countless lives by passing the Protecting Our Kids Act.

When Kristin Song found out that Ethan's Law was included in the Protecting Our Kids Act, she said that the first person she wanted to tell was Ethan, her beautiful boy, that she has fearlessly fought for since the day she was forced to watch him be lowered into the ground. Upon hearing the news, she immediately drove to the cemetery, and she ran across it yelling, ``Ethan, we did it. Your lifesaving legislation will be heard, it will get a vote.''

Madam Speaker, I am voting in favor of this legislation. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

We love you, Ethan.

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