Got Guns? Check How You Store Them

One of the most important initiatives that the National Shooting Sport Foundation (NSSF) has undertaken in recent years is its Gun Storage Check Week®.

NSSF launched Gun Storage Check Week in May 2024. The idea is to spotlight a time each year when gun owners can, and should, make sure their guns are securely stored when not in use.

As a reminder, it is not unlike the biannual reminder to replace the batteries in the smoke detectors in your home. Each is a simple yet critical step to prevent the tragic loss of life.

In launching Gun Storage Check Week Joe Bartozzi, President and CEO of NSSF, said, “The goal is to help prevent firearm accidents, especially those involving children, suicides and thefts. Hiding a gun on top of a refrigerator or a closet shelf or in some other location is not a substitute for secure, locked storage.”

The industry has long championed including a free cable lock with new firearms sold at retail. Today, almost every new gun sold includes one.

Through Project ChildSafe, which NSSF created in 1999 under the name Project HomeSafe, the industry has distributed over 42 million free gun locks. This is in partnership with 15,000 law enforcement agencies and more than 13,000 retail stores, conservation groups, hunting clubs, and safety instructors.

Gun Storage Check Week is a natural extension of NSSF’s laser focus on firearms safety. It also dovetails with another critical initiative spearheaded by Bartozzi: partnering with key organizations and investing resources in suicide prevention.

The annual number of firearm-related deaths is made up of essentially three main components. The first is accidental deaths. Thanks to the wide availability of free cable locks, along with educating gun owners of safe firearm storage, the number of accidental deaths has been reduced.

By definition, accidents can never be eliminated entirely, but there is little doubt that firearms manufacturers, NSSF, and Project ChildSafe have significantly reduced accidental firearm-related deaths.

The second category is the criminal misuse of firearms. Here, once again, the industry has taken the lead with a program called Don’t Lie For The Other Guy.

The vast majority of firearms in America are sold at retail by federally licensed firearms dealers, and as such require a background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The most common workaround is a “straw purchase,” in which a legal buyer purchases a firearm on behalf of a prohibited person.

Don’t Lie For The Other Guy, in partnership with the ATF, local law enforcement and prosecutors, and firearms retailers, has helped combat straw purchases to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals prohibited by law from owning firearms.

While these efforts have helped reduce illegal acquisitions, enforcement ultimately depends on prosecutors willing to pursue those cases. Instead, they prefer to target the legal manufacture and sale of firearms.

It's a bit like giving drunk drivers a pass while suing brewers and distillers.

The death statistics of criminal misuse of firearms are much more challenging to reduce when prosecutors take a laissez-faire approach to fighting violent crime. Naturally, the banning and confiscating firearms are the preferred tactics of many liberal-minded politicians and prosecutors.

Unfortunately for them, there is that pesky, old Constitution and its oft-quoted Second Amendment.

The third major component of annual firearm-related fatalities is death by suicide.

Suicide is a multifaceted problem with no single, one-size-fits-all solution. Its complexity means no single group or organization can tackle it. It’s only through a combined effort that any headway can be made.

Under Bartozzi, NSSF has put considerable effort into this difficult challenge. Partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA), NSSF co-hosted a series of Roundtables to address suicide prevention.

The first Roundtable in July 2022, followed by a second in September 2023, then a third in held in Washington D.C. in 2024, received strong support from across the firearms industry, with several major companies participating.

Suicide rates remain far too high, especially among active-duty military and veterans, but several programs are underway to help reach those in crisis. One such effort is NSSF’s Suicide Prevention Toolkit & Resources For Industry. 

Last year, NSSF partnered with The American Legion and AFSP to mail a combined toolkit to more than 9,000 American Legion Posts in the country. The mailing consisted of the NSSF-AFSP suicide prevention toolkit that was modified for a veteran audience and The American Legion’s “Be The One” suicide prevention materials.

The goal of NSSF’s work in the area is “to have all segments of industry provide education about suicide prevention to employees, firearm owners and their families.”

At the retail and range level that means training staff and educating customers about preventing suicide—what NSSF termed ‘Have a Brave Conversation.’

Bartozzi recognizes the unique position NSSF and members of the industry have on this issue when it comes to firearms, noting that “they carry trust and credibility” with consumers and “can help change attitudes and behaviors about this difficult subject.”

When the message on suicide prevention and firearms comes from NSSF and the industry “firearm owners will understand that the message inherently respects and supports their right to own and use firearms responsibly.”

That’s a major hurdle that few others can clear.

Which brings us back to Gun Storage Check Week. Access to firearms by those in crisis is just one reason to audit your firearms and how they are stored. But it’s an incredibly important reason.

Any unauthorized use can quickly become a tragedy, and you don’t want to look back and say to yourself, “if only I had….”

So this week, check your guns. Check your safes, gun cabinets, and lock boxes. Update security codes on keypads—if you think there might be somebody with the code that shouldn’t have it.

And check the batteries on your electronic locks. Batteries are cheap. Getting locked out of your safe isn’t.

NSSF is doing its part, on multiple fronts, to reduce firearm-related deaths. During Gun Storage Check Week, take a few minutes to do yours. Check your firearms, your locks, your safes, and your storage procedures. The time investment is minimal. The consequences of neglecting them can last a lifetime.

And nobody wants that.

– Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network