fist gun infographic
Courtesy NSSF

From the NSSF

The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®) today unveiled a new infographic for first-time gun owners in response to the surge in firearms sales across the U.S. Additionally, through its Project ChildSafe® program, NSSF has launched a new Firearm Storage and Safety Assessment Quiz, which allows gun owners to put their firearm safety knowledge to the test and learn if and how their safety habits might be improved.

“Our industry is seeing record-breaking sales in the midst of the COVID -19 pandemic, with a large percentage of these consumers being first-time gun buyers,” said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF’s President and CEO. “We want to be sure these new gun owners have as much information as possible about how to handle, use and store firearms safely and responsibly.”

The infographic covers a spectrum of information and provides helpful links on topics such as questions to ask before buying a gun, safe storage at home and where to find online training videos. The new quiz walks gun owners through a number of questions related to safe handling and storage of firearms, linking to resources and information to improve or enhance firearm safety practices. These new tools complement the safety training and education offered at retail stores, as well as the library of safety resources available through the Project ChildSafe program. These include a “Road To Responsible Firearm Ownership” tool, “Many Paths to Firearm Safety” video series and a Safe Storage Options infographic.

All of these materials and more will be concentrated into a new “Resources for New Gun Owners” section at ProjectChildSafe.org.

NSSF is also encouraging all parents, even if they are not gun owners, to discuss firearm safety with their families.  The Project ChildSafe website has videos on how to talk to kids about gun safety, as well as McGruff the Crime Dog gun safety videos for school-aged children, among a suite of tools for parents and educators. Additionally, NSSF is working to help the firearm-owning community better understand the topics of suicide and prevention with its Firearms and Suicide Prevention brochure. 

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About Project ChildSafe
NSSF, the trade association of the firearms industry, launched Project ChildSafe in 1999 (originally as Project HomeSafe). Since 1999, the program has provided more than 38 million free firearm safety kits and gun locks to firearm owners in all 50 states through partnerships with thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country. That’s in addition to the more than 70 million free locking devices manufacturers have included, and continue to include, with new firearms sold since 1998. While helping to prevent accidents among children is a focus, Project ChildSafe is intended to help adults practice greater firearm safety in the home. More information is available at projectchildsafe.org.

About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

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31 COMMENTS

  1. I get the feeling that a lot of this is a drive to sell more safes. The Swiss don’t have this problem and almost every Swiss household has at least the army issue rifle that one or both of the parents are required to keep in the home for most of their adult lives.

    Good intentions, but there is no such thing as a “thief proof” or “child proof” storage device. Anybody who thinks there is has never dealt with inquisitive teenagers.

    • I fixed my son’s curiosity by allowing him to look and even hold (once verified as cleared by me) by asking. Over the years he would measure his height by comparing himself to the various guns. He was even allowed to cycle the bolts and dry fire. It also made him realize how much he had to grow before he was able to start using them.

      By removing the forbidden fruit I was able to engage his curiosity productively.

    • So be it. A safe is never a bad thing. A campaign against fire safety that promotes buying fire extinguishers is also no problemo, even if a fire extinguisher can’t handle every fire.
      And it doesn’t have to be “XX proof” or nothing, that’s letting good be the enemy of perfect. “XX Resistant” also has value.
      Think of all the complete novices out there who now have a gun, and are only just starting to think about safety, training, etc.

      • “A safe is never a bad thing.”
        not in and of itself, no.
        when the need to extract items rapidly is denied, i’d say less than ideal.
        perhaps ~other~ needs access but no key, combo. battery dead.
        safety and security ain’t pals.

    • My kids (now 10 and 12) know they can shoot any of my guns whenever they ask. Usually I have to bug them to help me with cleaning, they have had enough of gun stuff after a day at the range.That is the ultimate unforbidden fruit. They know what guns are capable of, have a healthy respect for them and would not dream of sneaking in to play.

      Still, I keep most of my guns in a closet, locked with a deadbolt and my ammo in a locked metal storage cabinet. Not for my kid’s sake as much as for their guest’s. One full size pistol lives in a little safety box attached to the side of my bed frame.

      The so called “gun safes” are only meant to force the burglar to spend a bit more time. Which may or may not help in your particular situation. They will not keep an average IQ teenager out any more than your average burglar who is not just “grabbing and running”.

    • Child Sate Tool”s For New Gunm Owners. Okay stay oughtaa my business when I’m taking care of my kids. Like fck off. . My first son, two years old, interested in the tinkering I was doing with firegunms. “Stuck your finger in here”( between hammer and frame) says dad., ” now pull this.” ,,,Yeeeehaaaaah , with tears. “Don’t mess with Daddy’s gunms.” Was that mean??? ,,,I could leave a loaded slam blaster anywhere I wouldn’t to. Fck the Bambie pambie bs. Teach young kids you get hurt when Dad/Mom says *NO*,,,, cue; sighcallohgee

      • sounds a little like snyder’s interview with manson. “pain’s not bad- pain is good. it teaches you things. child sticks his hand in the flame, he learns not to do that.”
        paraphrasing. been a while since i’ve seen that.
        not that i disagree.

  2. NSSF is being the enemy within against self-defense and the fight against mandatory “safe storage” laws. A lock box prevents access to your gun when you need it.

    • I got the impression that Project Childsafe was written by the people that wrote the laws that Heller ruled unconstitutional. Ammo locked up separately from the locked up gun? Yeah, right, when you hear glass breaking downstairs in the middle of the night is an excellent time to run around unlocking multiple containers.

  4. NSSF is the firearms industry lobby, not ours. While our interests and the interests of firearms manufacturers often align, sometimes they don’t. We have seen that in the past, when we were sold out by the former owners of Ruger and Smith & Wesson.

    Locking up ammo and guns separately may be the pinnacle of safety, but rendering a firearm impotent is the antithesis of security.

    • I have too many guns to keep them all loaded and at the ready. So to protect them in the unlikely – but unsavory – even of a break-in when I’m not home, to prevent access by others, and fire protection, I do keep most of them locked up in the gun safe. Because…well…that’s what gun safes are for. Same with the ammo stashes.

      My go-to guns, however, are loaded and positioned where I need them. In fact, one of them is located only several feet away from me as I write this.

      I have issue with mandatory storage laws (such as what we have in CA), but I have none with general recommendations for storage practices or products.

      • A balance has to be found against safety and security. If there are children around, they have to be counted in the safety side.

        • Firearms safety begins long before a gun is brought into the equation. It begins before a child has the ability to manipulate a firearm. A child is a blank slate from birth. The training begins early in life. By teaching boundaries. Teaching them what is exceptable and what is not. I was brought up in a household by a single parent father in the late 50’s into the 60’s. Knowing what those boundaries were. No Touchy was the biggy. The house had numerous firearms. On the wall, In corners and leaning next to the bed. All Loaded. I understood from an early age they were No Touchy. Even before I knew why. As I got older. Around 4 or 5 I was brought into the world of firearms. Learning why they were No Touchy. As I grew older those boundaries I learned at an early age. Guided me through the rest of my life. Helping to raise sons of my own. Who understood No Touchy. Helping them to grow into fine young men. So the most important part of firearms safety in regards to children. Doesn’t necessarily have to involve a firearm But, will help to guide them when one is present. Be Safe out there. Maintain OP SEC and as always Keep Your Powder Dry.

        • Throwing money at the problem by buying the newest gadget is not a solution. Buying a gun safe so your kids don’t play with your guns is no more “gun safety” than buying them an iPad so that you don’t have to spend time with them is “parenting”.

        • My son knew what guns could do from watching R Lee Emery’s Lock’n’Load series. Keeping them in a safe for me was more about theft prevention and lessening the risk of damage to the firearms.

  5. Let’s see…You leave your firearm in a nightstand, etc. Your trusted 10 year old that you took hunting a couple of times knows better than to mess with your gun. One day your kid has one of their pals over and somehow the senario turns into a show and tell. One of the two manage to get shot. Time for an impromptu house party. First on the scene are a number of police cruisers followed by 5 or 6 fire dept. EMS followed by 2 or 3 detectives and on and on to attorneys, CPS, court dates, etc. It’s the party that never ends.

    • Safe storage doesn’t have to be mandated by law. Your first mistake in your hypothetical situation is that gun owners don’t watch their children, your second is that a gun owner would let an unknown child be unsupervised in their home. No one here is advocating leaving loaded firearms accessible to 10 year olds, its simply not the governments role to tell people how a firearm needs to be stored in their own home. Nonsense bias is at work in childhood death stats anyway, drownings are included with unintentional deaths but firearms are not, both are from negligent parenting. You also can forget the 18-21 year old gang banger deaths that are included in most “childhood death” stats as those are b.s. also.

    • Debbie,

      If you’ve taken your 10-yr-old out hunting, then he/she already knows how to handle a firearm and why. Participating in the taking of an animal’s life, seeing the bullet’s damage up close upon retrieving and field dressing the carcass, and overall exposure to the rifle’s concussive report and muzzle blast are enough to remove the “mystery” many youngsters attribute to guns.

      I call bovine excrement on your analogy.

    • Yes… because if I had a gathering of kids at MY house I would totally let them out of my sight… what could possibly go wrong?

  6. Yawn. I occasionally have trouble sleeping. I think save these new gun owners/virus articles for those nights. Seriously, does anyone really believe that a new firearms owner visits this, or any other, pro 2A site?

    • They might, but it’s usually a google on something along the lines of “How to load my firearm” or “is my firearm going to grow legs and shoot me if I keep it loaded” kind of shit. Plus, you’d be surprised at how much shit gets shared on social media and they find an article from 2014 then start commenting about keeping their ammo separate from the unloaded gun that has a child lock on it.

      But I feel the same, because it’s 5am and I am up early AF on my day off with nothing better to do right now than browse the articles I purposely skipped over.

      • ttag’s biggest hits are for gun reviews.
        and here you are in the comments.
        understood.

  7. No kids here, not for years and years now. Most of my guns are locked in metal gun lockers. Not safes, I can’t afford safes. The locked up gun lockers are in a locked up walk-in closet, with all the ammo and magazines and other stuff.

    That’s most guns. Other guns are my daily routine guns. Those are not locked up. Those are not just “Handle all guns as if they are loaded”, they are ALWAYS LOADED … except when broken down for cleaning.

    My guns set aside for self defense are never locked up, are always loaded and always have additional ammo at hand.

    Now, for parents with little kids, I understand the problem. Entirely sympathetic. Gun Safety there begins with educating them. Hell yes it includes locking up your boom sticks. Doesn’t mean you cannot have rapid access, it means you have to sweat the details. Maybe save up for additional gadgets that are not the toys you want to play with.

    Know a guy keeps an AR and a shotgun in wall mounted action locks. Biometric, mounted with lag bolts deep into the wood frame of a closet wall. Both are loaded always.

    You do what you gotta’ do, follow the best advice you can find, spend the money to be safe and keep those you love safe and deny yourself some stuff if you have to and keep your little ones safe until they are grown up and can do it themselves.

    What else is there anyway?

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