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Tag: safety

SSSF, Project ChildSafe® Partner on Firearm Safety Education

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The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is joining forces with Project ChildSafe to help promote responsible firearm handling and storage.

Project ChildSafe“Our shared history with the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation makes this partnership a natural fit, and SSSF’s many student athletes are outstanding ambassadors of safe firearms handling and storage for young people and adults,” said Steve Sanetti, president and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which launched Project ChildSafe in 1999.

SSSF is focused on sharing the tradition of shooting sports with future generations. It encourages safe and responsible firearm handling through its team-based shooting training, which allows student athletes to learn, practice, and compete in programs like the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Pistol Program.

“With more than 12,000 student athletes participating on over 800 teams across the country, we cannot overstate the importance of safety education as a component of the shooting sports tradition,” said Ben Berka, SSSF’s President and Executive Director. “By working with Project ChildSafe to pass this education through our athletes to their families and their communities, we can foster safe enjoyment of the shooting sports and take steps that can directly help prevent firearm accidents.”

NSSF, the trade association of the firearms industry, launched Project ChildSafe in 1999 as a nationwide initiative to promote firearms responsibility and encourage proper storage of firearms when they are not in use. Its mission is to help prevent firearm accidents through the distribution of safety education information and free firearm safety kits, which include a cable-style gun lock. Through vital partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country, Project ChildSafe has distributed more than 36 million firearms safety kits and gun locks to gun owners in all 50 states and five U.S. Territories.

Get a Safety Kit

Click to find a law enforcement agency with gun safety kits available

SSSF joins a growing list of leaders in the hunting, conservation and shooting sports industries that have endorsed and supported Project ChildSafe’ s mission and its message of “Own It? Respect it. Secure it.”

More About Project ChildSafe

Project ChildSafe is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity supported through contributions from diverse public sources to Project ChildSafe, Inc. To learn more about Project ChildSafe, visit www.projectchildsafe.org.

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 SSSF

The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is a 501(c)(3) organization supported by contributions from the industry and the public to promote youth development through the shooting sports. SSSF exists to raise funding and other resources for youth development programs in the shooting sports industry. It is responsible for all aspects of the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Pistol Program across the United States. To learn more, visit www.sssfonline.org.

Firearms Safety Depends on You

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NSSF Safety FlyerFrom the time you pick up a firearm, you become part of a system over which you have complete control. You are the only part of the system that can make a gun safe — or unsafe.

Here are 10 basics of gun handling that you must know, courtesy of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF):

  • 1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
  • 2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.
  • 3. Don’t rely on your gun’s “Safety.”
  • 4. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
  • 5. Use correct ammunition.
  • 6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care!
  • 7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.
  • 8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.
  • 9. Don’t alter or modify your gun, and have guns serviced regularly.
  • 10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.

NSSF has developed a booklet that explains each of these gun safety rules in detail. You can view or download it here.

NSSF also offers other safety literature for use by individuals, families, or shooting teams. You can find it at www.nssf.org/safety/lit/.

Prevent Gun Theft with These Common Sense Tips

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You’ve just finished an afternoon at the range, and you and your squad mates decide to stop off at your favorite hangout for a burger. Wearing your team shirts and caps, you leave your car in the parking lot, guns locked safely in their cases in the trunk. On the back window is a logo for your favorite gun brand, and empty ammo boxes are scattered in the backseat.

When you emerge an hour later to go home, you find that your car’s trunk has been popped opened, and your guns are gone! How could this happen?

Sportsman’s Insurance Agency, Inc. tells us that the vast majority of gun thefts are from vehicles. Shooters leave their vehicles in parking lots with guns and other equipment stored inside, and even with the firearms out of sight, it often isn’t hard for the bad guys to know which vehicles in the parking lot to hit.

Put yourself in the thief’s shoes: one or more persons are walking across the parking lot looking like they just left the shooting range, possibly wearing a shooting shirt, gun company cap, maybe even a vest or shooting glasses. When he takes a look at the vehicle you just left, he sees the bumper sticker, ammo boxes or shooting vest in the seat, and he knows there’s a good chance he’ll find a gun in the trunk.

Consider these pointers after a trip to the range or while traveling to a shoot:

  • When you get out of the car, do you look like you just left the range? What are you wearing? Does anything about your clothing or accessories say you have been shooting? If so, take it off or cover it up. If necessary, take along another shirt to change into before leaving your vehicle in a parking lot.

  • Does your vehicle look like a shooter’s vehicle? Are there bumper stickers or decals from gun companies or other equipment brands? If so, remove them.

  • Is anything visible through your vehicle windows that suggests you’ve been shooting? If so, put it in the trunk, and don’t give a thief any reason to break in.

  • Whenever possible, don’t leave firearms unattended in your vehicle, even in the trunk. If gun storage is offered at an event you are attending, use it. If you’re near home, take the gun home to your gun safe before going elsewhere.

  • Be especially mindful when you travel to a major shoot, like the National Championships in Sparta, when any bad guys in the area might be aware that lots of shooters will be around town, patronizing restaurants and other businesses. Unfortunately, every area has a bad element that is tempted by shooters who don’t have a gun safe accessible and may leave firearms in their vehicle.

  • Make sure your guns and expensive equipment are insured. If all else fails and you are the victim of a theft, at least you will be able to replace the lost items if you are properly insured.

NSSF Report: Unintentional Firearms Fatalities at Historic Low

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Firearm Safety Stats
Click on image to view report

Among the uninitiated, there is a common misconception that where there are guns, there must be accidental discharges and deaths as a result. But the facts could not be further from the truth! Findings of the National Safety Council show that unintentional firearms fatalities remain at historically low levels. In fact, the number of unintentional firearms-related fatalities has declined by 57 percent over the past two decades. The statistics prove that firearm safety training is effective.

Some of the interesting findings in the 2014 Edition of Firearms-Related Injury Statistics, compiled by the NSSF, include:

  • Firearms are involved in fewer than 1⁄2-percent of all unintentional fatalities in the United States. In a side-by-side comparison, firearms rank among the lowest causes of injury.
  • Firearms are involved in less than 1.8 percent of unintentional fatalities among children 14 years of age and under and are among the least likely causes of unintentional fatality.
  • As firearms safety education programs have increased, the number of unintentional firearms-related fatalities has decreased.
  • Over the past 10 years, the unintentional firearm fatality rate per 100,000 population has declined by 33 percent; since the beginning of record-keeping in 1903, this rate has declined by 94 percent!
  • Among fatal accidents at home, firearms rate well below poisoning, falls, natural heat and cold, mechanical suffocation, and many other categories.

NSSF has compiled statistics from agencies independent of the gun industry, such as the National Safety Council, to demonstrate the relative safety of firearms ownership and the effectiveness of firearms safety training as a deterrent to accidental discharges. We suggest that you download and print the report to keep handy for those times when you need facts to support your assertions about firearms safety training.

View and download the NSSF report.

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