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When a 12-year-old boy died last week in Westchester County after accidentally shooting himself while playing with a gun at home, police officers reminded the public to keep guns away from children.

A similar warning had been issued by different officials a few weeks earlier, when a 10-year-old boy on Long Island showed off a loaded gun in the school cafeteria. The boy was charged with criminal possession of a gun on school grounds.

More of the same came after a 13-year-old boy shot and killed a 14-year-old girl in Syracuse in January, and a 17-year-old boy accidentally killed himself in Westchester in February. It is a situation that is all too frequent in New York and around the country: At least 63 unintentional shootings by children have resulted in death or injury in 2019 alone, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

It also may be avoidable — which was the hope of New York lawmakers who passed a bill last month to require gun owners who live with someone under 16, or who know that someone under that age could access their gun, to lock up their firearm when it is not in use. Failure to comply would lead to a fine or a misdemeanor.

Though supporters called it a common-sense measure, the bill, if signed into law, would make New York one of just a handful of states with such comprehensive gun storage laws, according to Allison Anderman, senior counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Only three states and Washington, D.C., currently impose criminal liability on a gun owner for failure to store the gun safely when a child may gain access to it. (Seven other states require that a child carry or use the firearm in some way before criminal liability comes into play, according to the Giffords Law Center. In Connecticut, for example, the statute is enforced when the child uses the firearm to cause death or serious injury.)

“It was always about the kids,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester who sponsored the bill. “It was always about protecting from the accidents, the suicides, preventing kids from getting guns.”

But some gun owners said the bill could have unintended consequences, and have pressed for exemptions, even as officials have warned that every day that goes by without tougher safe-storage requirements endangers more children.

The bill has not yet been delivered to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has made gun control a central plank of his political identity. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said last month that the governor fully supported the legislation. But after critics raised questions about potential flaws, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo said this week that the governor would review the bill.

In particular, some have worried that the bill would restrict Boy Scouts and other children who learn to shoot at summer camp or as part of trap teams. The bill applies not only in the gun owner’s home but anywhere that a child might have access to the weapon.

The bill makes exceptions for children under 16 who have a hunting license, but children learning to shoot at camp often do not have a license. Under New York law, children between 12 and 15 may shoot guns at a range under adult supervision.

Patrick J. Morse, the founder of the group North Country Friends of the Second Amendment, said those children’s experiences qualified them to be around guns, despite their age.

“We have people on our trap team who are 12 years old, and they know everything there is to know about a gun,” he said. “You have other places where someone is 25 years old and has never seen a firearm.”

A more sensible law would require guns to be kept away from untrained people, rather than people under a certain age, Mr. Morse said.

Ms. Paulin acknowledged the potential issue and said she would be open to amending the bill. “It’s a good point. Those programs are very successful, and a lot of people in the state participate in them,” she said.

“We’re absolutely looking at it seriously,” she said. “The Boy Scout problem is solvable.”

Others opponents have cited enforcement and constitutionality as roadblocks.

Dave Workman, the senior editor of TheGunMag, a publication by the Second Amendment Foundation, said safe storage laws seemed impossible to enforce without violating gun owners’ privacy.

“You’re going to send the police around to knock on your door, to say ‘Hey, we’re going to come in and check that you have your gun stored safely?’” Mr. Workman said. “We’re not just talking about guns. We’re talking about privacy rights.”

In Washington State, after the cities of Seattle and Edmonds passed laws to penalize people who did not secure guns, the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation sued. The state ultimately approved statewide safe storage bills last November, via a ballot initiative.

Massachusetts has the most robust statewide gun storage laws in the country, requiring all guns to be locked when not in use, regardless of who lives with the owner. California, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., also have strict requirements, imposing criminal liability for improper gun storage when a child may, or is likely to, gain access to a firearm. New York would share that standard.

Other states impose liability on the gun owner only if a child actually accesses or uses the gun.

New York’s original bill would have emulated the Massachusetts law but was later tailored more narrowly to satisfy the State Senate, Ms. Paulin said. The Senate includes several new, more moderate members from Long Island and other suburbs.

The bill expands on a 2013 law that requires safe storage by people who live with people who are mentally ill or have committed certain crimes.

New York City, Westchester County and Albany County already have more restrictive storage laws in place, Ms. Paulin added.

Ms. Anderman at the Giffords Law Center said New York’s age limit could actually be stronger: Several other states, including more conservative states such as Oklahoma, have higher age restrictions on guns, requiring adults to keep guns away from children under 18.

The Legislature, newly controlled by Democrats for the first time in nearly a decade, also passed additional gun safety measures in January. Some of those measures were opposed by lawmakers from the state’s rural areas, whose constituents still hold grudges against Mr. Cuomo for ushering in the Safe Act in 2013, which expanded the state’s ban on assault weapons, tightened certification requirements and increased criminal penalties for illegal guns.

Michael Carpinelli, the sheriff of Lewis County, a rural area northeast of Syracuse, suggested the new bill would make self-defense more difficult. “What is a firearm doing locked up if a person can’t get to it to defend themselves?” he said. “A bad guy coming to your home with a gun isn’t following the law.”

Ms. Paulin dismissed that criticism, and stressed that the bill is not intended to keep guns away from responsible gun owners.

“That guy who doesn’t live with anybody, who has a valid license — who cares,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”

Vivian Wang is a reporter for the Metro Desk, covering New York State politics in Albany. She was raised in Chicago and graduated from Yale University. @vwang3

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