Democrats in the Oregon Legislature plan to introduce a bill in 2019 that would require gun owners to securely store their weapons using locks.

Gun owners who fail to follow through could be fined as much as $500, or $2,000 if a child gets unauthorized access to the firearm, according to a summary of the proposal released by supporters on Tuesday. They did not include a copy of the actual legislation, which will be introduced by Rep. Barbara Smith Warner, D-Portland, and Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene, after the session begins in January.

The proposal also would make it easier for shooting victims to sue for damages if the gun owner failed to secure the weapon, report the loss or theft of the gun in a timely manner or supervise a child using the gun. That provision would not apply if the gun was used in self-defense or defense of another person, according to a news release from the new gun advocacy nonprofit State of Safety Action.

Smith Warner and Manning say they will name the bill after Cindy Yuille and Steve Forsyth, the two people killed in the mass shooting at Clackamas Town Center. Tuesday was the six-year anniversary of the murders.

“The weapon that took my mom’s life was unsecured and taken from its owner’s home,” said Jenna Yuille, Cindy Yuille’s daughter, in a press release. “If it had been properly locked and stored, my mom might still be here today.” Jenna Yuille is now working with State of Safety Action.

Forsyth’s brother-in-law Paul Kemp is also working with the group. “Responsible gun owners always safely secure their weapons when not being carried,” Kemp said in a news release, noting that he is a gun owner. “It is time that all gun owners do that. There have to be consequences for those reckless and careless gun owners who don’t secure their firearms.

Supporters of the proposal repeatedly compared it to traffic safety laws. “It’s like a seatbelt law, you’re working to change behavior,” said Henry Wessinger, president of State of Safety Action, in an interview Tuesday. He said the group learned through polling that 75 percent of Oregon gun owners already lock up their weapons.

Wessinger said that storing guns securely is important because it can prevent children from hurting themselves and others. For example, Wessinger pointed to a 2004 federal report that found roughly two-thirds of school shootings were committed with guns obtained from the shooter’s home or the home of a relative. Wessinger said this is the only gun safety bill his group plans to advocate for in 2019 and so far all of State of Safety Action’s funding has come from individual donors in Oregon.

Yuille and Kemp were chief petitioners on a similar gun storage proposal they tried to get on the November ballot this year. However, supporters of that initiative conceded in June they would not be able to gather the more than 88,000 signatures needed by the July deadline. They faced opposition from gun rights groups and also got a late start, given Oregon’s lengthy initiative qualification process.

-- Hillary Borrud

hborrud@oregonian.com