Paul Bass Photo
DeLauro and Song, at center, recently touring New Haven's homicide victims' memorial garden, as part of an effort to promote gun-control legislation.
They know they have a hard road ahead in winning Senate approval, but Rosa DeLauro and Michael Song found reason to stop and celebrate Wednesday.
They did so at a Zoomed press conference held hours before DeLauro joined the House Of Representatives in approving a gun control bill that includes “Ethan’s Law” — a federal version of the 2019 Connecticut law requiring safe home storage of securely locked firearms. (You can watch the press conference in the below video.)
The law is named after Song’s son Ethan, who accidentally shot himself to death at the age of 15 with a gun improperly stored in a Tupperware box with the gunlock keys and ammunition nearby.
Song’s parents Kristin and Michael Song threw themselves into state and federal advocacy in his memory. DeLauro introduced and pushed for inclusion of the measure in the “Protecting Our Kids Act” before the House. Michael Song said he came to the realization after Ethan’s death that he can’t “change” the past, but he could try to “change the future.” He sang “Let It Be” at Ethan’s funeral, then devoted himself to passing legislation in Ethan’s name.
“What happened to Ethan was tragic,” DeLauro said at the press conference. “We have a duty to protect our children from senseless and accidental violence.”
She noted that, according to federal statistics, guns have become the number-one killer of American children, more than car accidents or cancer. More school-aged children have died from guns over the past two decades than have on-duty police officers and active-duty military officers combined, DeLauro stated. Meanwhile, an estimated 4.6 million children live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked gun.
Recent mass shootings in Buffalo and in Uvalde, Texas, have sparked an unusual bipartisan effort to pass modest gun-control legislation. Negotiations over the Senate bill are being led by Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy. At the moment, press reports do not include Ethan’s Law as part of the evolving bill.
DeLauro and Song acknowledged that fact. They acknowledged that not enough Republicans have expressed support at this point to move the measure into the bill.
They also promised to keep pushing, and remain confident.
“Today is a victory,” DeLauro declared. “Let us not think about what we can’t get done today.
“We weren’t sure yesterday that we could get done what we are getting today. We will move tomorrow and keep at this. That is the way legislation gets passed.”
“We’re going to keep fighting. We see some cracks in the wall,” echoed Song.
He described a conversation with pro-gun-rights stalwart Sen. Ted Cruz during a Capitol lobbying trip after Kristen testified before lawmakers: “He came over and was surprisingly open to talking about this. [There was] genuine fear in his heart about when his kids go into someone else’s house” where guns may not be safely secured. “There was a brief moment where I think he lapsed into expressing what he really felt, which was, of course: “I want those guns locked down. Of course I want to protect my daughter.’ ”
That doesn’t mean he’s discounting the odds against lawmakers like Cruz switching positions right away, Song said. It means that it makes sense to keep fighting with a long-term goal in mind.
Meanwhile, he was headed to Boston to mark Wednesday’s victory a second time — by singing “Let it Be” alongside Paul McCartney and other advocates at a celebratory event.