WOODLAND PARK – Robert Carroll, the Morris County Prosecutor, was brief and to the point.

“A responsible gun owner does not leave guns lying around,” he said. And those who do can expect to be punished.

Carroll commented during a Monday morning forum organized by Rep. Mikie Sherrill on new gun legislation.

Guns, of course, are a perennial political issue – and indications are things are unlikely to change anytime soon.

Yet, mass shootings continue.

In the last five days, there was a school shooting in Georgia and a man firing at traffic on a highway in Kentucky.

Democrats and gun control advocates have long talked about better background checks and a ban on semi-automatic weapons – the firearm apparently used in the two cited shootings.

Sherrill, who represents CD-11, acknowledges that such sweeping legislation is unlikely given the current make-up of Congress, which is just about evenly split between both parties.

That brings the focus to, as Sherrill said, the basics. By this, she means somewhat obvious measures that would draw bipartisan support – even in these polarized times.

So, she has proposed the Secure Storage Information Act.

The guts of the law would require firearm dealers to provide buyers with information and ways to safely store firearms, including gun safes, lock boxes, gun cases and trigger locks. It would also offer a tax credit up to $500 to those who purchase a gun safe.

Joining Sherrill on the panel were mental health and law enforcement professionals, including Andrew Caggiano, the police chief in Montville Township. Joining Carroll in the audience was Camelia Valdes, the Passaic County Prosecutor.

The forum was held in the local American Legion Hall; Sherrill is a Navy veteran.

All agreed that safely securing firearms can reduce suicides and accidental shootings – especially by children.

In fact, Valdes said that she and her sister found a relative’s gun when they were children. The firearm went off, but there were no injuries. That incident, not surprisingly, made an impression on the now-prosecutor.

Caggiano said locking up firearms can also prevent thefts.

Sherrill’s bill would give more teeth to Prosecutor Carroll’s statement about prosecuting irresponsible gun owners.

At the moment, however, the bill has only Democratic co-sponsors. That’s a problem in a House controlled by Republicans. Moreover, nothing much of consequence legislatively happens two months before an election, so don’t expect immediate action.

The NRA and its supporters in Congress tend to reflexively oppose just about all gun regulations. Those on the panel insisted that storing guns properly is about common sense safety, not the Second Amendment.

The recent shootings in Georgia and Kentucky were on everyone’s mind.  The father of the young man accused in the Georgia shooting has been charged himself for buying his son the semi-automatic weapon he used in a shooting that killed four people. That happened despite the fact the father knew his son may have been unstable.

Sherrill found it all bewildering, saying:

“It’s really hard for me to contemplate that we are living in a country where that is happening.”

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