Putting a lock on child safety

Monday, Dec. 1, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

Local law enforcement and Project ChildSafe, a nationwide program promoting safe firearms handling and storage, gave away gun locks over the weekend to try to protect children from accidental shootings.

Gun locks have become more common over the last three years, with most manufacturers providing some kind of locking mechanism with new firearms, said Leon Novak, owner of Center Mass Firearms in Henderson.

"I sell gun locks in my store mainly for those who own older guns and don't have a lock," Novak said. "A gun lock can be a good tool to prevent a child from being hurt if they somehow get ahold of a firearm.

"The best safety measure is to lock guns in a vault, and for gun owners to take responsibility."

Project ChildSafe is an expansion of Project HomeSafe, a program begun in 1999 designed to distribute gun locks and safety information packets to gun owners through local police agencies. The programs are sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation of Newtown, Conn., a trade group that represents about 1,800 gun, munitions and accessory manufacturers.

In 2002 HomeSafe distributed 2.4 million safety kits, gun locks and gun safety manuals, to 44 states. ChildSafe is funded by a $50 million Justice Department grant, and is scheduled to distribute about 20 million locks and manuals to gun owners in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories.

Nevada is scheduled to receive about 109,000 gun locks by summer 2004.

The locks, which retail for about $10, resemble a cable bicycle lock, and require a key to unlock. The lock slides through the barrel or cylinder of a revolver, or through the ejection port in shotguns, rifles and semiautomatic pistols.

While locks are a useful tool, Kovak says that they aren't the magic bullet that they are sometimes made out to be.

"It's really a Band-Aid on a bigger issue that is in the hearts of men," Kovak said. "A lock isn't going to stop a criminal from using some wire cutters to cut the lock and then go use it on the street."

Kovak provides National Rifle Association-certified gun training courses through his store, and said education is the key element to firearm safety.

According to the National Rifle Association, mandatory storage laws requiring gun owners to install gun locks on all firearms have been shown to prevent firearms from being used for self-defense.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has given Nevada a poor rating in gun safety for six straight years, and has advocated requiring gun locks be sold with guns.

Many gun manufacturers do provide gun locks with guns in the wake of lawsuits filed against the gun industry in the late 1990s to force manufacturers to provide effective safety devices with their weapons.

The number of young people killed nationwide by guns has dropped from an average of 16 per day to eight since the Brady Campaign began grading state gun laws in 1997. During the same period, the Centers for Disease Control reported a 48 percent reduction in the firearms death rate per 100,000 children and teens.

In its latest state-by-state report card released earlier this year the Brady Campaign gave Nevada a D+ in gun safety, citing "very weak" laws regarding the possession of guns by juveniles and no required background checks for private gun purchases.

Nevada Revised Statutes allow children under the age of 18 to handle firearms under adult supervision. Nevada law also allows private gun sellers, such as those at gun shows, to request a background check before selling a gun to someone, but does not make a check mandatory.

Those interested in gun locks can stop by a police substation and request a lock after showing proof of gun ownership.