Attorney: Controversial Gun Proposal Wouldn’t Work Here

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Punish law-abiding gun owners whose guns are used to murder, even if the gun owners didn’t commit the crime.
After the deadly Sante Fe High School Shooting, some are calling for just that.
This after investigators say the gunman used his fathers legally purchased weapons.

“I’m a gun owner. many of you are gun owners. We have a responsibility to be sure our guns are safe at home. That’s where gun control starts, at home. Your guns ought to be safe at home,” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in an interview.

“If you have firearms in your home and you do not secure them (there should be) a criminal liability that attaches,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

But local attorney Donna Smith said that isn’t a reality at this point.

“There is no law that says you have to use trigger locks, gun safes, there’s nothing that requires that in this state,” local attorney Donna Smith said.

Smith said she doesn’t see anything changing anytime soon, at least not in Mississippi.

“There’s never going to be an appetite for that in Mississippi,” she said.

In firearms safety courses, Starkville Police teach gun owners how to keep their firearms out of the wrong hands.

Starkville Police said they are most concerned about gun owners leaving their weapon in cars overnight. The most recent data in Starkville shows 75 percent of auto burglaries involved unlocked doors. They say always take your gun into the house and never leave it in an unlocked car.

But Smith said if they’re not doing that and their weapon is used to commit murder, with existing laws there’s little to nothing a prosecutor could do.

Smith says gun owners could potentially be sued in civil court, and there they’d face fines.