The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is making available firearms safety education materials to Texas communities after being awarded a $1 million grant earlier this year from the Office of Governor Greg Abbott. The goal of the initiative is to help reduce firearms accidents, theft and misuse, including suicide.
Texas selected NSSF as the recipient of the grant because of the strong track record of NSSF’s Project ChildSafe program, which for two decades has provided genuine firearms safety education to communities in all 50 states and the U.S. territories. Project ChildSafe is a firearms safety program created by gun owners for gun owners. It has distributed more than 38 million free firearm safety kits that include a gun lock through partnerships with more than 15,000 law enforcement departments.
“We are very grateful to the state of Texas for this $1 million grant and for their confidence and trust in NSSF and the Project ChildSafe program to promote responsible firearms ownership,” said NSSF President Joe Bartozzi. “We’ll be reminding gun owners that there’s a safe storage option that fits their lifestyle—whether it’s a gun lock, lock box or full-size gun safe—that will help keep guns out of the wrong hands.”
NSSF has been the recipient of many grants to support expansion of its award-winning Project ChildSafe program, including most recently a $2.4 million federal grant through the U.S. Department of Justice-Bureau of Justice Assistance.
NSSF will make its Project ChildSafe firearm safety kits, which contain a cable-style gun lock and safety brochure, available to communities through law enforcement agencies. The firearm safety kits can be ordered by law enforcement via the program’s website. In addition to the gun locks, partners will receive a poster reminding gun owners of the many gun safety resources at ProjectChildSafe.org, including firearm safety videos featuring McGruff the Crime Dog for young children, a video on how parents can talk to their kids about gun safety, a firearms and suicide prevention brochure, a child safety pledge and an infographic illustrating various safe storage devices for different lifestyles and budgets to secure firearms when not in use. NSSF’s “Own It? Respect It. Secure It.” campaign is a component of all Project ChildSafe initiatives.
“We are looking forward to working with Texas communities and emphasizing that securely storing firearms when not in use is the number one way to help prevent accidents, misuse and thefts,” said Bartozzi.
Safe storage of firearms works. Fatal firearms accidents have declined by 50 percent from 1997 to 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with unintentional firearm deaths accounting for less than 1 percent of fatal accidents from all causes.
