Tennessee Lawmaker Plans Another Attempt To Pass ‘MaKayla’s Law’ On Child Shootings

When children shoot themselves or someone else, should adults be punished?

That question is likely to come before Tennessee lawmakers again next year. A Democratic senator said Wednesday that she intends to try again to pass penalties in memory of an East Tennessee 8-year-old.

The proposal is called “MaKayla’s Law,” after the Jefferson County girl killed last year by her 11-year-old neighbor, reportedly because she refused to show him a puppy.

State Sen. Sara Kyle says lawmakers should reexamine gun safety in the wake of deaths like MaKayla Dyer’s.

“They are often 100 percent preventable had the guns been stored safely. Safe storage does save lives,” Kyle said.

Kyle, D-Memphis, suggests penalties for adults who don’t secure their guns — but only if a child shoots someone. She notes that the father of Benny Tiller, the boy convicted of killing Dyer, faced no prosecution for leaving his shotgun in a closet.

Kyle says limiting punishment to cases where someone is actually harmed should allay fears about overly aggressive enforcement. That was one of the arguments that sank a previous version of MaKayla’s Law.

But Republicans in the state Senate still express skepticism. They say there’s no evidence to show punishing gun owners for accidental shootings does anything to prevent them — not even those as tragic as the death of a child.