More gun owners with children are storing their weapons securely now, compared to years prior, some surveys have found. However, since gun ownership has risen sharply in recent years, there are still just as many children living in households with unsecured firearms now as in 2015 — about 4.6 million, researchers have found. And there are signs that unintentional shootings by children are again on the rise.

All this has led gun control advocates to make a renewed push for safe storage laws, viewing the measures as more politically palatable than restricting the types of weapons that Americans are able to buy, or who is able to purchase them. Six more states have adopted safe storage laws since the beginning of 2021. Securing firearms would not only keep children from accessing them, proponents say, but could also help prevent theft, suicide and mass shootings.

But these measures have continued to prompt a backlash from many gun rights advocates — and the issue remains highly partisan. 

In Michigan, it wasn’t until Democrats took control of the state Legislature in 2023 that lawmakers moved forward with a safe storage bill — a proposal prompted in part by a 2021 mass shooting at a Michigan high school carried out by a teenager who used his family’s unsecured handgun. 

The state GOP fought the measure, tweeting an image comparing gun control to the Holocaust hours before the bill passed. Gun rights advocates criticized the proposal for undermining their ability to defend themselves. “Am I supposed to say ‘HOLD ON, LET ME GET MY GUN, LET ME UNLOCK MY GUN AND NOW I NEED MY AMMO,’” David Johnson, president of the Upper Peninsula Sportsmen’s Alliance, said in written testimony.

At the same time, it’s unclear whether Michigan’s law will convince more gun owners to lock their firearms away. 

A growing body of research suggests that state safe storage laws are linked to a lower rate of unintentional child injuries and deaths. However, it’s not certain whether the laws themselves are driving the change, or whether states that pass them are seeing other shifts making these shootings less likely, said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. 

“The evidence is suggestive that maybe this works, but there are these caveats,” he said.   

The gun industry argues that the better and less intrusive approach is to educate more gun owners about safety measures, including gun safes and gun locks and keeping their weapons separate from ammunition. Other groups encourage parents to ask friends and family if they have unsecured weapons before letting their children visit.

Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University, has found evidence that gun owners are more likely to support safe storage practices if they hear the message from those they trust.

But ultimately, Anestis said, the only realistic goal is reducing the risk — not eliminating it.

“We have more firearms than we have people in the country,” he said. “The only path to better outcomes is harm reduction because there’s no way that there aren’t firearms.”

It took Skye just over three weeks to start talking again. 

Her name. Her age. And now, what color did she want her nails to be?

“Pink,” she whispered, as a speech therapist covered the opening where the breathing tube was still inserted in her trachea. 

After undergoing another surgery to remove the remains of her right eye — which doctors said could be replaced with a prosthetic, painted hazel to match the left one — Skye moved to a rehab facility at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, an hour away from Flint. The nurses, doctors and therapists there all said the same thing when they stepped out of the room. “A miracle,” they told her family. 

About a month after the shooting, she was speaking full sentences and eagerly reaching for solid food. “Yummy in my tummy,” she told Williams as she nibbled on a cinnamon roll. 

By Easter, Skye was trying to push her own wheelchair. She squealed with joy whenever a loved one came to visit. The moment they stepped out of view, she craned her neck around. “Nana, where you at?” 

It was the Skye they all knew: bubbly, funny, endless energy. “You comin’ back, girl!” Griggs exclaimed during a video call, watching Skye shimmying on her hospital bed, trying to dance.