‘MaKayla’s Law’: Bill named for child shooting reintroduced 8 years later

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nearly eight years after it was first introduced, Democratic lawmakers are still trying to get “MaKayla’s Law” passed.

The bill, which would penalize gun owners who leave a firearm loaded and accessible to a child, has been reintroduced nearly every year since 8-year-old MaKayla Dyer was shot and killed in East Tennessee, but it has failed every time.

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“We’ve brought it up, I think, every year. We continue to try to get this legislation passed, and every single year that we don’t get this passed there are children dying,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville), who is sponsoring the bill.

Under MaKayla’s Law, gun owners could face a Class C felony if a child under 13 finds an unsecured gun, discharges it and kills either themselves or another person. A Class C felony carries a possible sentence of three to 15 years in prison.

If the act results in injury, the punishment would be a Class E felony, which is punishable by a sentence of anywhere between one to six years in prison. According to Campbell, it would not mandate how guns are stored in the home, only hold “gun owners responsible” if a child gets ahold of a weapon that was not safely secured.

Even eight years later, the proposed legislation continues to bear MaKayla Dyer’s name as her story was the initial inspiration for the bill. Dyer, a student at White Pine Elementary, was shot and killed on Oct. 3, 2015, outside her home after she refused to show her neighbor her puppies.

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According to police, her neighbor, who was 11 years old at the time, had gone inside his parents’ home, gotten his dad’s unsecured shotgun from a closet, and shot Dyer from a window inside the home. The boy was found guilty of murder in February 2016.

“This [11-year-old boy] will be incarcerated until he is 19 years old, and the boy’s father, the guy who owned the gun, was not charged with any crime,” Campbell said. “So, under MaKayla’s Law, this father would have been held accountable for this decision.”

While Tennessee does prohibit a parent from intentionally giving a handgun to a minor if they know there is a “substantial risk” that child could use the gun to commit a felony, there are currently no laws penalizing someone who leaves a firearm accessible to a minor.

Dyer’s case may be the face of the bill, but Campbell said unintentional shootings involving Tennessee kids with access to unsecured guns continue to be a problem in the state.

Would safe storage laws help prevent accidental shootings?

“Last time I checked, which was a couple of days ago, we’ve already had four injuries this year,” she said. “So, this is a problem in Tennessee, and for people who are pro-life and pro-children, I think it’s important that we make sure our children aren’t getting killed unnecessarily.”

Data complied through Tennessee Under the Gun, a project created by the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, indicates that there were 17 unintentional shootings involving Tennessee children in 2022, resulting in nine deaths and eight injuries.

Based on that same data, only three other states, Texas, Indiana and Ohio, had more shootings than Tennessee. According to research by Everytown for Gun Safety, a national nonprofit that advocates for gun control, there are currently 26 states with child access prevention laws similar to MaKayla’s Law.

However, Campbell said MaKayla’s Law has faced the same challenges each year. Despite initially receiving support from Republicans and Democrats, along with a number of district attorneys, the bill was shot down by lawmakers the first week of March 2016.

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In an interview with News 2, Republican Jon Lundberg, who chaired the committee voting against the bill, described the measure as well intended but creating other consequences.

“We might fix it with this situation,” he told News 2. “But at the same time create 15 to 20 situations where someone who is the potential victim of a home invasion can’t get to a gun, can’t get a trigger lock opened, and things are going on and they are killed.”

However, Campbell said she doesn’t think that argument holds “any weight.”

“This is about consequences for a parent’s irresponsible choice,” she said. “If you are going to have a gun to protect yourself, then you need to make sure you’re putting it in a place where a child cannot get ahold of it and kill themselves or another child or an adult, or even a pet.”

The National Rifle Association has also spoken out against MaKayla’s Law in the past, with one NRA lobbyist stating that it’s not the state’s place to force proper gun storage during a Judiciary Committee hearing in 2016.

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“We do take the position that it is the gun owner’s responsibility to seek education, information and training on how to safely store a firearm, and not the state’s position to require the firearm owner to do so,” said NRA lobbyist Erin Luper.

Despite the challenges in getting the bill passed, Campbell said she is hopeful that this year will be different.

“I’m always hopeful,” she said. “Certainly, right now is the first time that I’ve seen in my time in the legislature that there’s actually been an interest with my colleagues across the aisle in possibly passing common sense gun regulations; but that having been said, it’s an uphill battle.”

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