Gun Storage Check Week, a public awareness campaign created by the NSSF, starts today and runs through starting June 1 and running through next Friday, June 7. The goal of the campaign is to remind gun owners to review their storage practices with the mission to prevent accidents, suicides and thefts.
“Securely storing guns when they’re not in use can save lives. It’s really that simple,” said Joe Bartozzi, president and CEO of NSSF. “No one wants their gun in the hands of an unsupervised child, a person in crisis, someone who does not understand how to safely operate firearms or a thief. If something bad happens because your gun isn’t stored securely, you’ll regret it, probably forever.”
Bartozzi said that Gun Storage Check Week is a time for firearm owners to make sure their guns are securely stored when not in use.
“Hiding a gun on top of a refrigerator or a closet shelf or in some other location is not a substitute for secure, locked storage,” Bartozzi emphasized. “Even if a firearm is kept for home security, there are devices such as lock boxes that allow readiness and at the same time deter unauthorized access.”
The Gun Storage Check Week campaign’s slogan is “Make Sure It’s Secure.” Gun Storage Check Week is a good time for parents to make sure firearms are not accessible to children during their summer break from school.
Secure Storage and Suicide Prevention
Each year more than half of all firearm-related fatalities are suicide deaths, and among veterans the rate tops 72 percent.
“Suicide is preventable,” said Bartozzi. “Gun owners and their families can save lives by becoming more open to discussing factors that contribute to suicide risk and by preventing access to firearms when someone is at risk. Supporting someone who is struggling and being respectful of the right to own firearms can go together.”
Storing firearms securely creates “time and space” so that when a person in crisis cannot reach a firearm, there is time for the period of acute risk to pass or for intervention to take place, and that can save a life. When circumstances warrant it, temporary offsite storage can be a solution, but remember to follow applicable firearm transfer laws.
Gun Storage Check Week’s safety resources highlight many options to store firearms securely so that guns are off limits to unauthorized persons. Secure gun storage devices include:
- cable locks—often available free of charge, including through NSSF’s Project ChildSafe program
- lock boxes—a secure storage solution for guns kept for home security and in vehicles
- lockable gun cases—for security and portability
- full-size gun cabinets and safes—for owners with multiple firearms to protect, including against fire and theft.
The GunStorageCheck.org website provides resources to help gun owners decide which locked storage device can best meet their needs.
Win a Lock Box
For those who own handguns for home and personal security, lock boxes are a trusted storage solution that come in a range of models using keys, access codes or biometrics to open them. Codes can be changed when someone wants to temporarily give up access to a firearm, with access restored when the time is right. Visitors to gunstoragecheck.org will have the opportunity to enter the Gun Storage Check Week Sweepstakes to win one of 25 ShotLock lock boxes, and they can gain extra entries to win by watching a firearm safety video.
Free cable gun locks are available in thousands of communities across the country through NSSF’s Project ChildSafe program in partnership with law enforcement agencies.
“Periodically, all gun owners should review their firearm storage practices because people’s lives change—a child grows older and becomes more curious, a teenager or adult happens to be going through a rough patch in life,” said Bartozzi. “These and other situations might require a change in storage habits or devices.
“Make Gun Storage Check Week the time you check the box on safety in your home by making sure firearms are secured from unwanted access,” said Bartozzi.
There are key elements in life that most people gloss over and just never think about. The fact that this article is about guns is just a single facet of a much larger diamond.
The entire music industry owes a significant portion of it’s success to the automotive industry. Every vehicle people buy comes with a radio. Sure, many listeners use internet streaming over a smart device at this point but that pales in comparison to the sheer volume of those that have long established the habit of turning on the car radio as the first thing done as soon as the engine is started. An action that competes against that of putting the gear in drive.
The housing industry (by the very same type of thinking) should be building every home with some kind of quality safe, or atleast the optional upgrade. Most home buyers would be perfectly fine tacking on an extra grand or two to a home. Many wouldn’t bat an eye at that price for upgraded countertops. We are talking about houses that are $100K to half a mil. generally. This should be just as standard as any other home option and would serve to satisfy the bulk of all this NSSF and government push. Everyone needs safes anyway. They can hold all kinds of things and are not just for firearms.
The only real problem with any of this is when it’s forced onto people via government mandate rather than being done by gun owners simply out of efforts to be responsible people. Keeping a loaded firearm in a shoe box on the top shelf of the hall closet is not ‘being responsible’. Particularly when there are children in the home and it isn’t even touched in so long as to be forgotten about.
I am left asking about the safe storage of all those kitchen knives that end up being used to stab people in the shower (like in Psycho) or as threats for throat cutting. Where is the NSSF when people are murdered like this? Surely there are plenty of real world examples of things where no gun was used anywhere at all?
They want to point to suicide in this conversation but only as it relates to guns that are not being used. That is very confusing because when it isn’t being used and locked in the safe then it (by definition) isn’t being used to commit suicide. What about that one gun that IS being used (to self terminate)? Twenty of them locked up means nothing compared to the one that isn’t. Even if they are ALL locked up then that still doesn’t stop suicide by cop or by fentanyl. This is the very reason why these things never get fixed. The problem just gets ignored.
I completely agree that keeping your guns locked in a safe when not being used is a very reasonable and responsible way to be. Even for those that live alone. But everyone must have the freedom to evaluate their own living conditions. Gun owners not doing that though is a problem.
Seat belts save lives( sometimes) but you shouldn’t get a ticket for not wearing one.
Air bags have saved lives too. They have also taken lives. Many new car buyers don’t know that there is an explosive device built into the head rest.
My dog is the most frequent passenger in my truck, and fortunately there’s a switch to turn off the passenger airbag, because dogs are not the right shape and size for the airbags — same as they warn to not have small children in the front seat with an airbag. But my truck is a standard cab; there is no back seat. I keep her harnessed to the seat so she doesn’t go flying in the event of a crash.
Well, when you get your brains knocked out and the rest of us have to pay for your 24/7/365 caregivers, then a ticket might help matters.
80 Billion to fucking Ukraine but you’re gonna whine about a potato languishing in a hospital bed? Piss Off!
Where is all that money saved by the taxpayers? .gov never operates in the black. Saving the taxpayers money is the biggest load of crap in history.
Had I had a seat belt on when my truck decided to do a backflip and go swimming I would have drowned.
That’s really not the issue though, what is , is,
you gave Freedom of Choice over to the insurance companies.
I have an accident report from 1977 where the highway patrolmen who filled it out stated that if I had been wearing a seat belt in the accident. I would have been killed. I was a passenger in a 1973 Chevy El Camino SS that hit a concrete culvert head on after the steering box broke. I was tossed out the windshield and the dashboard was smashed against the seat back. I was pretty messed up, but alive. So seat belts don’t always save lives, but I still wear one and not because I’m told I have to. I’ve had other accidents where they saved me from serious injury.
The point being…It’s Your Choice. Which it should be for all.
I’m happy you survived Darkman…
+2
70/30 is the odds l’ve heard.
Can’t afford a safe so I made a hidey in the wall.
Locking up a gunm to prevent suicide. Yeah theres a commercial on TV about that too.
What’s the point,is the time it takes to unlock the three lock box supposed to make the difference?
It might. It might not.
Today’s Fudd Talk(tm) is brought to you by the NSSF.
I find the time it takes to unlock the three lock box really really depressing. Really depressing. Very, very depressing…
Sometimes less is more. A lot more.
My gats are secure & none of yer business!
Aren’t all guns insecure? You know, the whole compensating thing.
The heading should be….By Now If You Are Still Not Smart Enough To Vote For POTUS DJT Then You Are Too Stupid And Too Pathetic Like hunter biden To Ever Own A Firearm…FJB.
TRUMP 2024.
you are a wordy broken record. get a fresh rant or idea.
Shut up, woman.
Some are locked in the gun room all the time. Some are strategically placed around the abode when at home. Which are and when is the question and the answer is you don’t want to find out. The hard way.
Your home is your castle and isn’t a castle the very epitome of “secure” from the outside?
Nobody I wouldn’t trust unsupervised around a weapon would ever be given permission to wander around my castle unsupervised. If they are entering without permission then they gonna FIND OUT.
What if they enter unsupervised when you are not at home? That’s my only real concern, as the other categories are inapplicable. My safe is not large enough for all of my guns, and I haven’t space for another. When my grandparents were burgled, the pro got all but one item–and he’d handled that item but missed the cash. A professional burglar will know where people try to hide things and will look there.
Jan 26, 2023 — A dog stepped on a gun in the backseat of a car, striking and killing a 30-year-old man in the front seat, Kansas authorities said.
Secure those guns.
Secure those dogs.
It was a Bird Dog and the dog overheard the owner say, “Well, if he doesn’t fly this time throw him into the air and I’ll shute him.”
Fearing for his life the dog had no other choice.
There was also a story about a man who was beating a snake with the butt if his gunm and snakes tail somehow got into the trigger guard and the man was shot.
Both of those stories could be suicide.
I suppose there where witnesses?
were, where, wear.
…. and in another popular Kansas fairytale, a dog named Toto and her owner Dorothy met a couple of new friends along a yellow brick road.
Forget tip toeing through the Tulips, I’m taking a walk in the Poppies.
Sept. 22, 2023
A Texas grocery store employee was killed after a rifle discharged while he was petting a customer’s dog inside their vehicle, according to the Linden Texas Police Department.
When the .22 rifle discharged, shooting Lawrence in the chest, the gun was in the backseat.
Not, the store guy reached inside the vehicle to retrieve the stolen Doggie treats and Fido wasn’t going to have it.
November 1, 2018 A dog named Charlie shot a man named “Tex” on the way to a jackrabbit hunt in the New Mexico desert.
“It went through my ribs my lung and busted up my collarbone on the right side,” victim Tex Harold Gilligan told ABC News. “I had a gaping hole, you know, and a lot of blood there too,” Gilligan said. “I could see the blood and I felt it,”
Charlie 120-pound Rottweiler mix got his foot in the trigger of the gun, caught the trigger and blasted a shot at his unsuspecting owner
January 11, 2019 Matt Branch of Monroe, Louisiana, a former Louisiana State University football player, was hunting ducks with friends near Eagle Lake in Mississippi on Dec. 28.
when a fellow hunters’ dog jumped in the bed of the vehicle, stepped on the gun, pushed the safety off and depressed the trigger. The gun fired and struck Branch in his left thigh. Branch was severely injured and doctors amputated his left leg.
According to The Washington Post, at least 10 people were reportedly shot by dogs between 2004-2015 in the U.S.
At a range of 7ft #4 bird shot in a12 guage shotgunms kick ass. Mini cannons.
and The risk of over penetrating damage is nill.
Three weeks ago I blew the head clean off a sick Nabian ( they are pretty, I like the long ears and spots)goat at 3ft with a sawed off 12 guage #4 bird. Hit high on the neck where the “neckbone connected to the skull bone meets the headbone.”
Humans that hire me to kill stuff always think I’m crayz because I sing fucked up songs after I do the killin.(I’m having a blast)
Like that lady that hired me to clean out a bunch of stray cats. “Soft kitty, pretty kitty , pur, pur pur.”
I tell yah when you go to killing cats you gotta be damned quick. Once the gunm goes off and a couple of them start start flopping around the rest get real smart real fast and the next thing you know your running traps, then they get wise to that and yah gotta use poison. I just don’t like using poison because its worse then dieing from being gutshot.
How about killing dogs?, well if it’s on a chain I just bust it in the head with an axe. And like I told my buddy when he was going to shute a stray dog,,” Ohh whoe there Roy ! !, don’t hit it in the head( he’s a good shot), shoot it in the guts, it’ll run off and die somewhere, you won’t have to bury it.” He said “Damn possum your one cruel SOB.” I said, maybe so but I ain’t digging no holes, gimme that gunm.
Gee’s *LAMO* I know the elf bee eye reads this shit, I’d really like to know what they think?
—++;)>
Don’t ever use poison because it ruins the meat. Not eating what you kill is a sin IMHO.
I bet you don’t say that about rats and mice. Or cockroaches either.
Rats and mice are okay with enough ketchup. Rat on a stick is considered a delicacy where I come from -even more sought after than German Shepard Pie.
Bugs don’t count. Flies, mosquitos, roaches -all of the same vermin.
hmmmm?, , Humans that hire me,,,,hire me,,, to kill stuff. That’s some deep shit right there.
I think them humans doing the hiring need some Mental Help.
What say yee?
My girlfriend’s son made First Sargent before he was paralyzed after two tours in SandLand.
My gas stations gas is now at 3.16 a gallon……Thank You For Your Service 1stSrgnt Ronald J H-fman.🤜🇺🇸❤.
If the dems win, back to 5 plus on the gas.
If they win there won’t be any gas at any price -OR any food until the show is over.. Hope you all prepped….
The problem with prepping is that it’s like money…it always eventually runs out.
Spend thousands on prepping for six months for something that lasts two years. Sure, ration and make it last longer then find out that it wasn’t two years. It’s actually four years.
Constant and regular replenishing is required. Wether you have enough to hold you two weeks or a year. It is the reason for having an active healthy society. We all need eachother.
Having an “active healthy society” was so 20th century.
Things will get lean, and then even leaner before things get even a little bit better. Either you will be prepared to live through things or you starve. Even being prepared is no guarantee. Starving people will kill you for a scrap or food and not think twice about it and there will be armies or marching hungry zombies out there looking for whatever they can to survive.
Life isn’t fair -then it’s over.
Agreed
After living through so many hurricanes, I already had enough stuff stashed away that finding things like toilet paper, bottled water, paper towels, and Lysol wipes during Covid could be done slowly and methodically instead of frantically. It isn’t wall to wall like some do but I never had to go without. Much of this really is just common sense.
Yeah, dumping oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to lower gas prices is a sure sign we’re in the “Loot everything that isn’t bolted down” stage of leadership.
Here we just dropped (in most places) under $5 a gallon. It had been trending down, but then shot up again.
I don’t need your social engineering and your lectures.
The NSSF, like the NRA, just loves to hand away our rights for their own selfish short-term gains.
Remember the gun safe and lock companies are part of the NSSF and they have repeatedly lobbied for mandatory safe -storage laws.
Dumbest, most worthless story of 2024. Another moronic canadian idea?
A locked away firearm is worthless for self-defense.
Not every gun is had for self defense.
California is on the cusp of a mandatory storage law, requiring that any firearm not on you or near enough for your immediate possession to be secured in an “authorized” storage device. And they even made it enforceable in inescapable ways. Coming soon to an FFL in every corner of the sate is a requirement that EACH time one buys a bang stick, one must purchase an approved storage device (from lock boxes up to safes) OR provide proof with an ORIGINAL receipt of the purchase of such a device. This law applies to both purchases from the FFL or interpersonal transfers other than allowed inheritances. I have a safe, but I most certainly do not have the original receipt. This must be provided to the FFL–and the FFL must attest to it–before delivery.