For Immediate Release

Tyrone Stevens | Contact: 475-290-0340 / [email protected]

ICYMI: Senator Erik Bottcher Calls for Passage of Francesco’s Law in New Op-ed

NEW YORK, NY — State Senator Erik Bottcher today published a new op-ed calling for the passage of Francesco’s Law, legislation he introduced with Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson to require gun owners to safely secure firearms when they are not in their immediate control.

In the op-ed, Bottcher shares the story of Francesco Cochran, a 17-year-old Long Island teenager who died by suicide after accessing an unsecured shotgun, and reflects on his own experience surviving suicide attempts as a teenager.

“Access to a firearm can turn a temporary crisis into an irreversible loss,” Bottcher writes. “Safe storage laws keep people alive.”

Francesco’s Law would require firearms to be stored in a secure container or rendered inoperable with a trigger lock when not under the owner’s immediate control. The bill is backed by a coalition of gun safety organizations, advocates, survivors, and families.

You can read the op-ed online, and in full below:

One Lock Can Save a Life

By Senator Erik Bottcher

Parents who’ve lost children often speak in two timelines: the life that happened and the life that should have been.

Earlier this year in Albany, I met Diana Cochran, a Long Island mother who has turned the worst pain imaginable into a fight to keep other families from experiencing the same grief. 

Diana’s son Francesco was just 17 years old when he died by suicide after gaining access to an unsecured shotgun in his other parent’s home.

As Diana told me about Francesco and the future he should have had, I found myself thinking about how little can separate a crisis someone survives from a tragedy no family can undo.

Because I saw parts of myself in Francesco.

When I was 15, I spent a month in a psychiatric hospital after a series of suicide attempts.

I remember feeling isolated. I remember carrying pain that felt impossible to explain. I remember believing, with complete certainty, things would never improve.

Teenagers experience time differently. A bad week can feel permanent. A heartbreak can feel endless. A struggle with identity can feel all-consuming. What teenagers have yet to learn, adults usually understand through experience — pain and circumstances change.

Like Francesco, I was struggling with my sexual orientation, bullying, and my mental health. There was one difference between us I think about often.

My parents did not have a gun in our home.

If they had, I do not believe I would be alive today.

I wouldn’t have moved to New York City with a duffel bag and a dream, built a life in public service, or discovered what felt impossible to imagine at 15: that I would eventually become happy and live a wonderful life.

A difficult reality surrounding suicide, particularly among young people, is that crises are often temporary. But access to a firearm can turn a temporary crisis into an irreversible loss.

To help save lives, Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson and I have introduced legislation called Francesco’s Law. This bill would require gun owners to secure firearms when they aren’t in their immediate control, either by locking them in a secure container or using a trigger lock that prevents the gun from being fired.

That’s common sense. 

And we’ve teamed up with a broad coalition of gun safety organizations, advocates, survivors, and families who are leading the push to pass it.

Safe storage laws keep people alive.

In addition to preventing youth suicides, safe storage helps prevent accidental shootings, school shootings, and gun theft. 

Research has found that roughly 76 to 80 percent of school shooters under the age of 18 obtained their firearms from their own home or from the homes of friends or relatives. At the same time, an estimated 380,000 to more than 500,000 firearms are stolen from private citizens each year.

Arguments about firearms in America often become arguments about rights. But there’s another question worth asking: what responsibilities come with those rights?

We already answer versions of that question in many parts of life. We require seatbelts. We put locks on medicine cabinets. We place fences around swimming pools. We take precautions because children and teenagers can be impulsive and because a moment can change everything.

I think about Francesco and the life he didn’t get to have.

I think about my own life and how close I came to not having mine.

And, I think about time.

Sometimes another chance is measured in years. Sometimes it’s measured in months. 

Sometimes it’s measured in a few more minutes for the worst moment to pass.

For many people, that time is enough to survive, to heal, and to build a life they once could not imagine.

Bottcher is the Senator representing New York’s 47th State Senate District in Manhattan

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