NORFOLK, Va. — State Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-33rd) said she spent months crafting a Senate bill that would tackle deadly gun incidents among children.
"Guns are the number one cause of death for children under the age of 18," Boysko said between sessions on Virginia's General Assembly floor Thursday.
Boysko proposed Senate Bill 1139, which would require gun owners to store their firearms in a safe lock or box out of reach from children inside the home.
It also would have penalized anyone who did not properly lock away their guns with a class one misdemeanor.
The House of Delegates tabled it in the Public Safety Committee after six Republican lawmakers voted against the bill while four Democrats voted in favor of it.
"I thought the safe gun storage bill was a pragmatic, reasonable, data-driven approach. Republicans and Democrats should be able to get behind the idea that you simply lock up your gun when you are home and there are children around," said Boysko. "Unfortunately, politics prevailed, and we will not be moving forward on it."
This decision comes about two months after the shooting at Richneck Elementary School where a 6-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner.
It's still unclear how the boy gained access to his mother's handgun, but the boy's family attorney claims that the gun he used had been "secured" before the shooting.
Since then, a group of middle schoolers in Newport News passed a bullet around in class. Then, another 6-year-old student brought a loaded gun to Little Creek Elementary School in Norfolk.
Shortly after that, Woodside High School administrators in Newport News caught a student with a gun in his belongings when they received a tip about the weapon on school grounds.
Sen. Boysko said this decision won't stop her push for gun safety, saying, "We all need to work together, across party lines, to solve this problem...we can if we have the conviction to do so."
13News Now reached out to the six lawmakers who voted against the bill to secure firearms in homes, but we have not heard back.