Firearm Safety Myths

Have you ever questioned the parents of a playmate to determine whether or not guns are kept in a house before allowing your child to play there? Have you asked how those guns are stored? Have you or would you deny your child access to a house where there are guns with no safe storage practices? Would you be embarrassed to ask those questions to assure the safety of your own or other children?


There is at least one "gun" in over 40% of the homes in this country. In Oregon, it is estimated that 50% of households own one or more firearms. Never assume that people who own guns have actually been taught how to use or safely store them. This applies to visiting your own relatives!
 

MYTH 2:      I don't have children, so I don't have to keep my guns locked up.

You never know who will eventually find your gun. Perhaps someday a relative or loved one will discover the loaded gun when you are gone. In a recent public turn-in of firearms, relatives carried loaded guns into the collection site... totally unaware they were carrying a loaded and lethal weapon. Not everyone that comes into contact with a gun might know how your individual gun works.

Locking and safely storing firearms is just plain common sense. Firearms locked in steel safes are less likely to be stolen. A quality trigger lock or device can make a gun unusable to the point that it would almost have to be destroyed to remove the lock. This makes it less attractive to a thief because it renders the weapon essentially useless. Locks and safes make guns less accessible to a distraught individual acting impulsively.


In the event of a fire or natural disaster, would you want that loaded, unlocked firearm to kill or maim the rescuer sifting through the rubble of your house looking for you?
 

MYTH 3:      I have my gun for protection and cannot keep it locked up!

This is a personal choice which you should think through very carefully. If you have small children or teenagers you should think through this choice over and over again. Despite dramatic stories of individual citizens gunning down intruders, the added risks of having a loved one be a victim of the same firearm are alarming.


FACT: Guns are lethal weapons. Guns are and always have been designed to kill. Target pistols and rifles kill or maim as efficiently as military, hunting and novelty weapons. Professionals who are paid to wear and use firearms are now taught strategies for protecting their loved ones from their firearms at home. The decision to keep a loaded firearm in your house, trailer or car requires specific solutions for safe storage.

Oregon has been identified as having one of the highest teenage suicide rates in the United States. The preferred method is a handgun owned or kept by the family. If you insist on keeping a loaded weapon for personal defense, please consider that there are many reasonably priced safes or vaults with touch-pad locks that keep the firearm safe when you are not busy defending yourself. These gun storage devices allow quick access to a user who knows the combination. Do all family members have to know the combination?


Make changing combinations part of your safety routine like changing smoke detector batteries. Christmas and The 4th of July are about 6 months apart... CHANGE YOUR BATTERIES and the COMBINATION to your gun safe twice a year!
 

MYTH 4:      I have my guns so well hidden that my kids will never find them!

People who actually believe this should ask the next question... But what if they actually do find the firearm? Will it be locked or rendered unusable? If you think your kids don't know where your guns are, you are probably fooling yourself!


A hunting rifle without a bolt cannot fire a bullet. A shotgun that cannot be closed is incapable of working. If all of the clips, bolts and bullets were stored at a neighbor's or relative's house in a locked fishing tackle box... No matter how hard they tried... the gun just couldn't be used. If you were a thief would you take only part of gun that is worthless without the other parts?

Only YOU should know where this alternate storage site is. If hunting season is over in November... Why do you need a bolt in that rifle for the next 11 months ? Is anyone's life worth the $7 to $10 it would take to render most guns harmless?
 

MYTH 5:      I have taught my family how to safely handle firearms and they all know never to touch the guns when I'm not there!

Take the guess work out of this one. No matter what you think, you will not always be there to control the friends your children might bring home, house guests, or any number of scenarios involving depression, alcohol, drugs, fighting, burglary, etc... If you really are a responsible gun owner you will teach them not just how to use firearms safely, but how to store them safely and responsibly at home. Trigger locks and gun safes are as much a part of gun ownership as safety-belts are to drivers and helmets are to motorcyclists, bicyclists and skate boarders.

This is an issue of responsibility and safety, not rights. It is not an intrusion on Constitutional or personal freedoms to lock up a gun! In fact we, will go so far as to say that: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN "ACCIDENTAL" SHOOTING. There are "UNINTENTIONAL" shootings that result from improper handling and storage. Guns rarely or ever just go off by themselves without some human contact. So called "Accidents" are usually the result of a human being not following basic safety rules or common sense. Accidents are things we cannot control, like mechanical failure of a part or being struck by a meteorite. Many mechanical failures can be prevented through proper maintenance and are also not really accidents. Of the last 556 humans to arrive at a particular Trauma Center with a firearm related injury... NOT ONE WAS RELATED TO SPONTANEOUS MECHANICAL FAILURE of a firearm or bullet. Not one shot was fired by a meteorite striking a gun in the bedroom closet!

If everyone ALWAYS followed the 10 Commandments of Gun Safety we would never have so-called "Unintentional" incidents with firearms. No child in any household would ever be able to physically touch a loaded, unlocked firearm and kill his best friend or sister. Fewer stolen guns would be used to kill innocent bystanders and storekeepers. A despondent teenager would never again place a loaded shotgun against his head...
 

TRUTH:   No matter what you personally believe about guns and gun ownership...  the following rules are just a good idea:
 

• Lock up all of your guns or have a method to render them harmless.
• Store all firearms out of children's reach and in a locked cabinet or drawer. Carry the keys or lock combinationWITH YOU whenever you leave. Do not share combinations with other family members. Do not leave extra keys in the house.
• Keep GUNS unloaded with ammunition locked in a separate place. Never leave a bullet in a stored gun.
• Always keep the gun's safety on, even if it is unloaded.
• Treat all guns and firearms, including pellet guns, as if they are loaded.
• Tell children to never touch a gun.
• Keep no firearms in the home if someone has a history of depression or threatens suicide.
• Teach gun safety in the home.
• All gun owners and children of owners should take a gun safety course.
   

GUN SAFES = SAFE GUNS = SAVED LIVES