Do prosecutors usually hold parents liable when children or teenagers shoot someone?

In a recent review of news reports and police records of cases in which children under 12 either killed themselves or were shot and killed by another child, researchers found that about half of those deaths led to a criminal charge.

But Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said he was not aware of any systematic study of the matter.

“If a parent loses a child to unsafe storage, the harm is principally done within that family or home,” he said. “Prosecutors have something better to do than to prosecute those grieving parents.”

Charges would be more likely in mass shooting cases, Dr. Webster said.

Which states have negligent storage laws?

In addition to Texas, versions of the law are on the books in California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

The laws generally apply when a gun owner “knows or reasonably should know” that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Do any states require guns to be locked up even when there are no children in the home?

Massachusetts is the only state that mandates that all guns be stored with a lock. In California, Connecticut and New York, a firearm must be kept locked up if its owner lives with someone who is not allowed by law to possess a gun, like a felon or domestic abuser. Other states are not as strict.

“A lot of the language in these laws give a lot of latitude,” Dr. Webster said.

He said that while some states have strengthened existing laws, there has been no new legislation on this question in a generation, and there are no federal statutes.