- The parents of Christian Petillo, a 15-year-old who died in an accidental shooting, continue to advocate for safe gun storage laws.
- House Bill 2214, which would hold gun owners responsible if a child accesses their firearm, was not granted a hearing.
- It’s unconscionable that the Legislature continues to prioritize gun rights over children’s safety.
The Arizona House on Monday unanimously passed a bill to keep toxic chemicals and harmful dyes out of school lunches.
“Arizona,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Leo Biasiucci, announced, “is ready to put the health of our children first.”
It’s a good bill.
And a total lie.
If the Arizona Legislature is truly willing to put the health of our children first, our leaders would act not only to keep blue dye out of their food but guns out of their hands.
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“We can’t even get a hearing,” Bruce Petillo told me on Monday afternoon. “He (House Judiciary Chairman Quang Nguyen) won’t even talk to us. We’ve reached out to him over the last two years on numerous occasions, and he won’t respond.”
Christian Petillo died in 2021 at a sleepover
I get it. It must be uncomfortable for a politician to talk to heartbroken parents while cozied up under the covers with the National Rifle Association.
Christian Petillo was 15 years old on Sept. 5, 2021, the youngest child of Bruce and Claire Petillo of Gilbert. It was a Sunday, the night before Labor Day, and he was excited as his dad dropped him off at a friend’s house for a sleepover party.
“He was great athlete, just a wonderful, kind-hearted kid. Very sensitive,” his father told me. “He laughed from the belly and had a smile that could light up the room when he walked in. But he was teenager.”
Nobody’s ever gotten the full story of what happened that evening.
The boy who hosted the party brought out a gun. The 14- and 15-year-olds passed it around. It went off and Christian?
He never had a chance.
Lawmakers choose gun rights over children
No changes were filed. It was an accident, after all — an unthinkable tragedy that really isn’t all that unthinkable when kids have access to their parents’ guns.
In Arizona, that’s not a crime.
The Petillos spent several years trying to get the Legislature to pass a bill requiring that guns be locked in a safe or equipped with a trigger guard.
Republican legislators were horrified — more interested in protecting their Second Amendment right to keep their Colt on the coffee table than in protecting a child from a bullet to the chest.
So this year, the Petillos turned it around.
Instead of proposing that guns be safely stored, they proposed that gun owners be responsible — that they take “reasonable measures” to prevent a minor from getting their gun.
If not, they could be charged with misconduct involving weapons — a class 6 felony if a child accesses their firearm and a class 4 if he or she seriously injures or kills someone.
Guns are a top cause of accidental death
Once again, Nguyen refused even to hear House Bill 2214.
Count Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson and the bill’s sponsor, among the frustrated.
“It’s awful that Arizona has no gun violence prevention legislation and that even a bill that just makes parents responsible if their gun is used to cause harm is (considered) ridiculous,” she told me. “It’s time we do something to prevent the No. 1 killer of children in our state.”
Actually, guns are the second leading cause of accidental death of Arizona children, behind motor vehicle crashes.
Christian was one of 56 Arizona kids killed with guns in 2021.
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Two years later, 68 Arizona kids were killed with guns, according to the latest state report on child fatalities.
And the Legislature is as uninterested now as it was then in doing a darned thing about it.
Christian’s Law is dead, but parents keep trying
Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, didn’t respond to a question about why he wouldn’t even hear the bill in his Judiciary Committee. Last week was the deadline.
But then, this is the guy who earlier this year was horrified not with the number of kids killed by guns but by the state Child Fatality Review Team’s recommendation that parents either get rid of their guns or store them safely.
Nguyen called it an “unjustified attack on the Second Amendment.”
So, Christian’s Law? Yeah. It’s as dead as a 15-old-boy who should be turning 19 next month.
Petillo says he and his wife will be back next year, and the year after. It’s how they channel their grief and their desire to protect others from the hell that awaits when your child is killed and your leaders shrug their shoulders.
“Kids are dying from guns, and we can try and explain it away, or we can have a discussion,” he said. “A pragmatic discussion about moving commonsense laws into place that keep guns out of the hands of kids.”
Or not, as it turns out.
Kids? They’re on their own.
Because really, what’s more important? The life of a child or your 100% rating with the NRA?
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz, on Threads at @LaurieRobertsaz and on BlueSky at @laurieroberts.bsky.social.
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