One of the most frustrating aspects of this legislation is the way the bill has been deliberately misrepresented. After consulting with Republican colleagues, Senator Sara Kyle amended MaKayla’s Law. Although she did not get another chance to present her bill to fellow Senate Judiciary Committee members, the amended was presented and adopted in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on March 16. (Representatives Lundberg and Carter inexplicably voted against the amendment. Representatives Jones, Beck, and Coley voted for it).

The amendment “makes the bill” meaning it makes substantive changes. Specifically, “recklessly place, leave, or store” was removed and replaced with “the person in possession knows or should know is accessible.”

Even more significant is the removal of the misdemeanor offense. In the original bill, it was stated in section (c) (1) - A violation would be a “Class A misdemeanor is a child under 13 years of age obtains possession of a firearm, left, placed, or stored in violation of subsection (a) but the child does not discharge the firearm or permit another to discharge it.”

This section of the bill was removed.

The only violations that remain in the amended bill are:

A Class E felony if the child obtains possession of the gun, discharges it, and causes bodily injury to themselves or someone else.

A Class C felony if the child obtains possession of the gun, discharges it, and kills themselves or someone else.

To be clear, the only time someone would be charged with a crime under this law would be if a child under 13-years-old find a loaded unsecured gun, fires it, AND injures or kills themselves or someone else with it.

The gun would have to be fired before charges could have been filed.

SB2294/HB2058 - AS AMENDED:

SB2294/HB2058 - ORIGINAL AS FILED WITH AMENDMENT CHANGING BILL NAME TO MAKAYLA’S LAW.