The investigation into Christian’s dying is ongoing, and the Petillos consider they’ll by no means know precisely what occurred that evening. However they do know that Christian was by chance shot. A bullet entered his chest close to his collarbone and exited across the reverse shoulder blade. 

His mother and father bought the information and rushed to the hospital, however the surgeon advised them their son had no probability of survival. 

“I used to be in full disbelief,” Claire Petillo advised the Arizona Mirror. “I used to be in shock. I by no means thought this could occur in my wildest desires.” 

The Petillos don’t preserve weapons of their residence, and though Christian had beforehand requested to go capturing, they advised him they’d take him to a variety and educate him gun security after he turned 16. He was about six months wanting that milestone when he died. 

As a strategy to cope with their anger and grief over their son’s tragic dying, the Petillos are working with legislators on the state and nationwide stage to advocate for what they consider are commonsense gun legal guidelines. They mentioned they’re pushed by the hope of defending different households from enduring the agony of shedding a baby in the identical means, so younger and so immediately. 

Christian’s Legislation, launched this yr by Democratic state Reps. Jennifer Longdon and Jennifer Pawlik, would require gun house owners to maintain both their ammunition, their gun or each in a locked storage container, or to suit their firearm with a tool that might render it inoperable with no mixture or key. 

When the gun isn’t secured, the proprietor can be required to maintain the firearm and ammunition on their individual, or in extraordinarily shut proximity. 

Those that violate the regulation can be topic to a civil penalty of at the very least $1,000. 

Bruce Petillo views Christian’s Legislation as just like seat belt or drunk driving legal guidelines, which have each been credited with saving numerous lives. 

“Christian’s Legislation isn’t taking away a factor,” Claire Petillo mentioned. “It’s not taking away anybody’s Second Modification proper. You’re welcome to personal weapons. However please be accountable and lock them up.” 

Those that retailer their weapons carelessly needs to be held accountable for that, Bruce Petillo mentioned. 

“What you could have in your possession can take a life immediately, and there’s a accountability that goes with that,” he mentioned. 

The Petillos had been on the Arizona Capitol on Monday, together with greater than 100 different volunteers and gun security advocates from Mothers Demand Motion and Everytown for Gun Security for a day of engagement with state officers and lawmakers. 

4 Mothers Demand Motion volunteers had been elected to the state legislature this yr: Democratic Reps. Jennifer Longdon, Nancy Gutierrez and Laura Terech, together with Sen. Christine Marsh. 

Longdon, who was paralyzed in a drive-by capturing in Phoenix 19 years in the past, has launched a set of gun management payments that might: eEstablish a course of for the give up of a hid weapons allow after a felony or home violence conviction; enable a court docket to prohibit a home abuser from having a firearm, if the court docket grants an order of safety in opposition to that individual; require a three-day ready interval between the acquisition and receipt of a gun; require that gross sales or transfers of weapons happen via a licensed gun supplier; create a framework for submitting a “extreme menace” safety order when the accused has made dying threats and permit for a firearm to be taken from that individual; and improve the age to legally personal or carry a firearm to 21, up from 18, with sure exemptions, together with for looking and for members of the army. 

Terech has additionally launched payments that might exempt faculty constructing blueprints from public information requests and would require faculty districts to contain college students, mother and father and college staff of their security plans. 

In 2020, greater than 45,000 folks within the U.S. had been killed by weapons, however greater than half of these deaths had been suicides, in keeping with the Pew Analysis Heart. Advocates on Monday additionally talked about the disturbing frequency of mass shootings, with a surprising 39 mass shootings within the U.S. since Jan. 1. Essentially the most lethal up to now simply occurred over the weekend in Monterey Park, California, and left 11 folks useless and 9 extra injured. 

Longdon has proposed gun management payments previously that she mentioned had been blocked by the highly effective gun foyer, however she hopes that Christian’s Legislation will garner bipartisan help. 

“Once you ship a baby off to a sleepover, it is best to count on them to come back residence; it’s so simple as that,” Longdon mentioned in a information launch. “This yr and yearly I’ve been right here, we have now launched commonsense concepts, broadly supported by the general public, that might save lives. None would infringe on the Second Modification within the least. However annually we face a blockade that’s backed by cash and energy, not logic.”

Shannon Watts, the founding father of Mothers Demand Motion, praised the group gathered on the Capitol on Monday, saying that their efforts had helped to dam Nationwide Rifle Affiliation-backed laws proposed within the legislature final yr that might have expanded the place folks with concealed-carry permits may carry their weapons, require that colleges present firearms security programs from the NRA to center and highschool college students and would prohibit public entities from getting into into contracts value greater than $100,000 except the contractor licensed that it doesn’t discriminate in opposition to firearm companies. 

“We will save lives, however we have now to demand our lawmakers act, we have now to demand greater than ideas and prayers, we have now to demand coverage change,” Watts mentioned. 

Along with their time assembly lawmakers on the Capitol, the gun management advocates additionally deliberate to ship a “Soul Field” to every legislator. Soul containers are origami containers, every designed to symbolize an individual killed by gun violence. The advocates deliberate to provide every legislator a soul field representing an individual killed by gun violence inside their very own district.