The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is reminding educators and school administrators of the resources available to talk with students and parents about firearm safety and proper storage. NSSF’s website contains many different types of resources to assist educators in talking with students about safety, including handouts, a child’s safety pledge and two free videos, one featuring McGruff the Crime Dog on gun safety and another titled “It’s Your Call: Playing It Safe Around Guns.” Educators can visit www.nssf.org/safety to access these materials or request videos.
“We know some school administrators and educators are reluctant to provide firearm safety education in their schools and classrooms, but we believe such education is appropriate for students in nearly all grade levels,” said NSSF President and CEO Steve Sanetti. “Lately, we’ve been pleased to read about school districts that have taken the positive step of providing firearm safety resources to teachers, students and parents. As the leading voice on firearm safety and responsibility, NSSF stands ready to support firearm safety education efforts in schools.”
Added Sanetti, “Let’s get beyond whatever fears and personal feelings we may have and focus upon providing genuine safety education that can help save lives–something we all want.”
NSSF is providing this reminder to educators as part of its ongoing Project ChildSafe program, which has provided more than 36 million free firearm safety kits and gun locks to communities through partnerships with more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. A key component of Project ChildSafe is education.
“We also encourage schools to work with our law enforcement partners as they think through how to discuss firearm safety with their students,” Sanetti said. “Law enforcement agencies have a long history of working with schools to discuss important issues of safety. There’s every reason to make firearm safety part of that conversation.”
NSSF is leading the charge to establish “Own It? Respect It. Secure it.” as the mantra for firearm safety throughout the country and build on the successful Project ChildSafe initiative. Launched in 1999 (prior to 2003 the program was called Project HomeSafe), Project Childsafe is a nationwide initiative to promote firearms responsibility and provide safety education to all gun owners.
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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 more than 10,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, visit www.nssf.org.
About 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. While children are a focus, Project ChildSafe is intended to help young people and adults practice greater firearm safety in the home. The program was originally supported by federal grants provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 2008, when this funding was cut, the firearms manufacturing industry has solely funded the Project ChildSafe program through the members of NSSF.