Individual Project Brief

2 / 25 Initial Idea: Gun Lock Campaign My individual exploration of the issues in this class will focus on promoting good firearm habits to parents through using gun locks. Young children usually get fatally injured or dies from gun accidents and teenagers are more involved in homicide and suicide. Although different age group of children are involved in gun in 3 different ways, they do have some similarity that lots of times, they are exposed to the gun at home where they can easily get an access to. It is parent’s responsibility to store the gun in a safe way and keep a gun away from children. A simple habit such as using a gun lock can increase possibility to prevent not only the children to get an access to the guns but also prevent the deaths & injury. Owning guns is normalized in US society, and why ‘owning gun = using gun locks’ can be also normalized?

2 / 27 Individual Brief Change I had an interview with Chris Vitale, who is a nurse UPMC Children’s Hospital, to receive some advice on current gun lock campaigns and gun safety programs. She introduced me to the Safety Center at UPMC where provides parents a useful information about children’s safety including firearm habits. Then I found out that the Safety Center gives away “Project ChildSafety Kit” containing a booklet and a cable style gun lock, in order to promote children’s safety. However, I was very shocked by how unreliable the gun lock was. The lock that should protect the children was made so poorly and even doubtful whether it works properly or not. Therefore, instead of promoting gun locks, I decided to change my individual project to research and evaluate Project ChildSafety Kit and then also provide reviews of other safety devices.

Resource: personal interview with Chris Vitale

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3 / 4 What is Project ChildSafe ?

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Project ChildSafe is a nationwide program, developed by NSSF(National Shooting Sports Foundation,) whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearms owners through the distribution of key safety education messages and free gun locking devices (safety kits). The program received millions in funding through U.S. Department of Justice grants between 2002-2008, and now by the firearm industries. Project ChildSafe establishes partnerships with governors, lieutenant governors, U.S. attorneys, community leaders, and law enforcement agencies to allow for efficient statewide distribution of kits. It has been provided 36 million free kits to gun owners since 2003, and according to Project ChildSafe’s website, fatal firearm accident rate has dropped by 22% in 10 years.

What kind of locks are being distributed by Project ChildSafe? A cable-style gun lock that meets the California AB 106 Standard. Cable locks require that many types of firearms be unloaded before the cable lock is installed, providing an extra level of safety. After reading these statements from Project ChildSafe website and without knowing what California AB 106 Standard is, locks seemed to be very safe and reliable. I initially thought that AB 106 requires strict regulations on safety devices. However, as reading California Assembly Bill 106 Standard, I found out that the bill implemented a minimum safety standard for firearm safety devices to reduce the risk of firearm-related injuries to children 18 years of age and younger. The guideline that I believe Project ChildSafe followed was “including provisions to ensure that firearms safety devices are reusable and of adequate quality to prevent unauthorized users from firing the firearm and to ensure that these devices cannot be readily removed from the firearm except by an authorized adult user using the appropriate method of access.”

Resources:

http://www.projectchildsafe.org

www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/99-00/bill/asm/ab_0101-0150/ab_106_cfa_19990322_134054_asm_comm.html

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Project ChildSafe Gunlock Program Ad claims that with lock no accidents happen.