GUN OWNERS CARE® ABOUT SAFETY AND KEEPING GUNS OUT OF THE WRONG HANDS
Gun owners know that safety is not achieved through ignorance, but rather through learning both through education and doing. A gun owner has the ability to enhance the safety of him/herself, but also for family, friends and community members. Gun Owners Care stresses that safety is the primary reason for gun ownership and therefore the priority when it comes to individual ownership.
Thanks to the efforts of gun owners, fatal firearms accidents are at historic lows and now constitute less than 1 percent of all fatal accidents nationwide, according to the National Safety Council Injury Facts Report.
Stories of Safety
Project ChildSafe®
NSSF launched Project ChildSafe® in 1999 (prior to 2003 the program was called Project HomeSafe) as a nationwide initiative to promote firearms responsibility and provide safety education to all gun owners, young adults and children. Through partnerships with more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, the program has provided more than 38 million free firearm safety kits to gun owners in all 50 states and the five U.S. territories to help prevent firearms accidents, theft and misuse. That’s in addition to the more than 70 million free locking devices manufacturers have included with new firearms sold since 1998 and continue to do today. Project ChildSafe was also recognized as one of three finalists in the National Safety Council’s 2018 “Green Cross for Safety” Awards.
Help us grow Project ChildSafe even more! Check to see if the program is offered in your town or city, and if not, contact your local police department and encourage them to adopt the program.
Suicide Prevention
NSSF and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention developed a Suicide Prevention toolkit to help firearms retailers, shooting range operators and customers understand risk factors and warning signs related to suicide, know where to find help and encourage secure firearms storage options. Retailers and ranges are encouraged to participate in this program in order to help save lives.
FixNICS®
A background check system is only as good as the records in the database. FBI NICS databases are currently incomplete because some states have not provided all records that show someone is prohibited from owning a firearm under current law, especially including mental health adjudications and involuntary commitments orders. Including these missing records will help ensure more accurate and complete background checks. The firearms industry’s ongoing FixNICS® campaign was launched in 2013, and the work continues to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
Don’t Lie for the Other GuyTM
Keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons, minors, persons determined by a court of law to be “mentally defective” and other individuals prohibited by law from owning firearms is critical to preventing violent crime and keeping communities safe. That’s why for nearly two decades, NSSF has partnered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to develop and implement an educational program to assist firearm retailers in detecting and preventing “straw purchases,” the illegal purchase of a firearm by one person for another. The goal of the Don’t Lie for the Other GuyTM program is to reduce firearm straw purchases at the retail level and to educate would-be straw purchasers of the penalties of knowingly participating in an illegal firearm purchase.
Operation Secure Store®
Firearms stolen from FFL retailers are a serious threat to public safety, and no one wants to prevent the theft of firearms more than the licensed retailers that sell them. To help combat the problem, NSSF and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have partnered to create Operation Secure Store® (OSS), a comprehensive joint initiative to help Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL) make well-informed security-related decisions to deter and prevent thefts. The initiative includes educational programming, including an ongoing series of regional seminars hosted by ATF, as well as a matching rewards program that doubles the money offered for information leading to convictions.
