Gun Safety Tips

Gun Safety In Your Home

  • Never leave children unsupervised in a home with a gun.
  • Store guns unloaded and secured with effective, child-resistant gun locks in a locked container out of the reach and sight of children. See this infographic for safe storage options.
  • Store ammunition in a separate locked container out of the reach and sight of children.
  • Never assume your child doesn’t know where you store your gun. Make sure the key or safe combination is also hidden.
  • Have conversations to educate your child. Make sure they know to never touch a gun and always tell an adult if they see one is important, but it doesn’t replace the need to keep guns locked, unloaded, and out of reach.
  • Have conversations to educate your child. Make sure they know to never touch a gun and always tell an adult if they see one. Talking about gun safety is important, but it doesn’t replace the need to keep guns locked, unloaded, and out of reach.

Gun Safety and Vehicles

A responsible gun owner should ensure their firearms are either in their immediate control or locked, and stored out of sight at all times. If a gunowner chooses to legally travel with their firearm, there will be situations in which a firearm will need to be stored in their vehicle. When situations like this come up, it’s important to be very cautious to prevent the firearm from theft or from ending up in the hands of a child.

  • Ensure the vehicle is locked to prevent access.
  • Store the firearm unloaded in a locked gun case.
  • Keep firearms and lockbox out of sight.

For more information and tips, view Project ChildSafe’s Firearm Safety in Vehicles.

Gun Safety in Other Homes

A child’s access to a firearm can result in irreversible tragedy. While it’s important to ensure the firearms in your own home are unloaded, locked and stored in a location out of your children’s reach, it’s also important to screen the homes and vehicles your child visits to confirm your child will be safe there, as well. Remember to ask families, friends, neighbors and child care providers if there is an unlocked gun around and request that they store it safely and securely. These tragedies can be prevented, and safe, proper gun storage is the only solution.

Our friends with the BeSMART campaign have made a list of conversation starters to ask friends, family members, and caregivers about gun storage before your child goes to visit. Take a look here for some helpful tips.