BATON ROUGE - Lawmakers defeated an effort in the state legislature to penalize people who do not properly store their guns.

"Once that bullet leaves the chamber, you have no control over what happens," Senator Regina Barrow said.

In January, police say 16-year-old Charleston Wright was accidentally shot and killed on Ozark Street.

Nearly three months later, in March, his brother, 17-year-old Devonte Coleman, also died in an accidental shooting.

That same month, 10-year-old Kimani Thomas was playing outside of a car while waiting for her parents to switch shifts at a restaurant on government street, when police say a younger relative picked up a gun and accidentally shot Thomas. She died at the hospital.

"Since the first of the year, that we've had here in Baton Rouge, had those weapons been securely, properly, stored, then those kids would not be dead, it's very simple," Barrow said.

A bill authored by Senator Barrow would penalize people who do not securely store their firearms, and a minor can get access to them.

Violators could face a fine and be required to complete a firearm safety training by the National Rifle Association.

"I'm not trying to keep people from having a weapon, being able to have their Second Amendment rights. I'm just trying to make sure that if you have one and you have a child under the age of 13 with you, your weapon is always secured," Barrow said.

Opponents of the bill say a long-term solution is education.

"If the risk of your child being killed by an unsecured firearm is not enough to deter you. I strongly question whether the existence of this statute would be, " Vice President of the Louisiana Shooting Association, Everett Baudean said.

Owner of Jim's Firearms, Jim McClain, says he feels gun safety should be taught in schools.

"It seems like it's the elephant in the room when you talk about it, everybody's like, oh no, we don't want to teach our kids how to shoot. You're not. You're teaching them to do what if you find the gun, how to handle it, tell an adult," McClain said.

The bill failed to pass and was deferred, and cannot come back up.

"We've got to do something different, we can't continue to go down this road, 121 kids lost in one year is way too many for a simply, unintentional act of violence," Barrow said.

Senator Barrow says she may propose a resolution to study the number of unintentional shootings across the state.