THE FOUNDATION
FOR MODERN YOUTH & CIVIC PARTICIPATION
GUN SAFETY TIPS
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Guns are to be stored in a locked location, unloaded and out of sight & reach from children.
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Ammunition is to be stored separately in a locked location and out of sight & reach from children.
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Guns are to be stored with child resistant gun locks.
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Keys and lock combinations are to be kept away.
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When a gun is not in a locked box, it is to be treated like it’s loaded and in your line of sight or secured in a holster on your body at all times.
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All guns are to be treated as if they are loaded.
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Never point a gun at anyone or anything you are not ready to destroy.
ADDITIONAL SAFETY TIPS FOR KIDS
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Never point a toy gun at anyone or anything you are not ready to destroy, even if it’s obvious it’s a toy with a colored tip.
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If you find a gun, DO NOT TOUCH IT and tell an adult immediately.
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If you are at a friends house and he/she is playing with a gun, go to another location and tell an adult immediately.
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Guns on television and video games are different from guns in real life. A gun in real life can really harm someone.
Demonstrate the importance of gun safety to prevent you or your children from becoming a statistic.
GUN SAFETY
WE TEACH OUR KIDS ABOUT SEX, DRUGS AND STRANGERS AS AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
As parents, we go out of our way to teach our kids about everyday things that might be a hazard to them. We have classes in our schools to help us bridge the gaps where we may fail, and reinforce information we’ve been telling them for years. Safe sex, avoiding drugs and alcohol, and resisting peer pressure are standard lessons conveyed in an effort to keep our kids safe while they are outside of our supervision.
Yet, there is one topic often overlooked. It’s not commonly taught in schools and not discussed among neighbors due to its standing among many as a political “third rail.” That topic is gun safety.
It doesn’t matter what your views on gun ownership are or if you agree with the current originalist reading of the 2nd Amendment.
The fact remains that over 350 million guns are legally in households, strapped to hips and slung in purses across this nation. In gun free homes, assuming a gun free environment is enough to protect your children is foolhardy. In gun friendly homes, limiting access to children needs to be the first consideration for safety. Unfortunately, both types of homes often fail to teach the children the right lessons and let the television and the internet teach them the wrong ones.
We need to begin to teach firearm safety in our homes and our schools. There are existing programs such as the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s “Project Childsafe” that have ready to go materials and presentations that can be incorporated into a safety convocation at your local church or school. This program and others like it are frequently shunned, to the detriment of our children, because they discuss an uncomfortable topic. Parents don’t want to see kids hurt themselves or each other, yet they disregard their responsibility and the duty of our educators to teach our kids the right lessons about prevention and safety. This needs to change.
See the reverse side of this card for tips that can help keep your child safe. We owe it to them to do everything we can to teach our kids how to react should they ever find a gun.