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Las Vegas, NV –(AmmoLand.com)- Las Vegas Bass Pro Shops, Tactical West Las Vegas and the Nevada Department of Wildlife will present two free seminars on firearm safety and training to help gun owners take steps to handle and store firearms responsibly.

Nevada Department of Wildlife representatives will also be on hand to distribute free gun locks and safety information, provided by Project ChildSafe, to each family that attends (while supplies last). Attendees will also have a chance to win a $100 Bass Pro Gift Card.

Family Firearm Safety Seminars

These seminars are developed to educate residents on the concepts of firearm safety – especially safe handling and secure storage. Knowing about these practices is important whether there are guns in the home or not. Whole families are encouraged to attend these free seminars, which will include instruction, videos and informational materials to take home. Each family will also receive a free gun lock and safety kit provided by Project ChildSafe, and will be entered to win a $100 Bass Pro Shops Gift Card.

Seminars will be conducted by Kevin McNair, owner of Tactical West, member of Bass Pro’s Hunting Pro Staff and an instructor for the Nevada Department of Wildlife Hunter Education Program. McNair was named a Project ChildSafe “Local Champion” this year for his work to promote firearm safety.

Full article can be found on Ammoland.

The James City County Police Department is offering two free firearm safety classes to the public. Each one-session class will cover basic safety, handling, storage and basic laws related to carrying a concealed handgun in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The class does not include hands-on training and personal firearms should be left at home in a secure location. A certificate of attendance will be provided to attendees.

The classes will be held on Oct. 26 from 6:30-9 p.m. and Nov. 21 from 9-11:30 a.m. Both classes will be held at the Law Enforcement Center at 4600 Opportunity Way.

Pre-registration is required as class size is limited. Contact Master Officer Alan McDowell at 757-603-6026 to register.

Grant funding received from the National Rifle Association Foundation and Project ChildSafe was used to purchase class materials and gunlocks for this free class.

Full article can be found on The Virginia Gazette.

Whether he’s teaching a concealed weapons class or coaching one on one, Kevin McNair emphasizes safety first.

That diligence is why McNair, 50, has been recognized as a “Local Champion” by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

“Some people you have to tell over and over again,” McNair said. “It’s all about safety.”

Always keep the firearm’s muzzle — McNair called it “the business end” — pointed in a safe direction and away from people. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re going to shoot. Always treat a gun like it’s loaded. Understand that the gun’s safety is a mechanism that can fail.

“It’s the person holding the firearm’s responsibility, not the firearm,” McNair said. “It doesn’t have to be a problem if it’s done safely.”

McNair, owner and founder of the Tactical West shop in the southwest valley, preaches that message to everyone he teaches, whether a person who’s never fired a gun before or a veteran shooter getting a license renewed.

McNair, who lives in Las Vegas, teaches hunter education classes through Nevada’s Department of Wildlife and does firearm classes and hunting seminars for groups and individuals. He’s a licensed concealed carry firearm instructor for Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Florida. He is the local chapter chairman for the Mule Deer Foundation, a conservation group that pushes to protect deer habitat and supports hunting, and he instructs local Boy Scouts seeking to earn firearm-related badges.

McNair grew up around guns and has been hunting all his life, he said. Even after he graduated from UNLV and started doing marketing for major casino companies, he always knew he would end up in this field.

The husband and father of two teenagers was working for a casino in Northern Nevada when he started taking National Rifle Association classes to become a certified instructor in the early 2000s. He started his own training business and in 2010 became Bass Pro Shops’ go-to gun guy.

McNair said he joined the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearm manufacturers’ trade group most famous in the valley for its annual SHOT Show convention, because he is a Second Amendment enthusiast and loves the kinds of safety outreach that it does.

McNair will be recognized at a foundation event today at Bass Pro Shops at 8200 Dean Martin Drive. It’s part of the foundation’s third annual Project ChildSafe “S.A.F.E. Summer” campaign. McNair will lead two seminars, designed to educate both children and adults about the importance of keeping weapons out of the hands of vulnerable children.

The S.A.F.E. Summer campaign aims to remind people that proper firearm safety prevents accidents, theft and misuse.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says Project ChildSafe, which launched in 1999, has provided 37 million free firearm safety kits to gun owners. Manufacturers have included free locking devices with more than 70 million new firearms sold since 1998.

Such kits will be distributed at today’s event. McNair hosts concealed weapons classes the first Saturday of every month at Bass Pro Shops for about $100.

Original article on Las Vegas Review Journal.

In an effort to promote awareness and child safety, the Lodi Police Department is giving away free gun locks to any Lodi resident who wishes to obtain one. Simply come to the Lodi Police Department at 1 Memorial Drive during normal business hours Monday through Friday 8am-4pm and speak to someone in the Records Division.

Show your driver’s license with your Lodi address and you get the lock, free. Also, anyone who files for a permit to purchase a gun, will receive a lock with each permit issued. Records Division personnel will also be available during certain evening hours when Lodi Municipal Court is in session.

Original article on The Bergen Dispatch (source no longer available).

MOBILE, AL (WALA) –

It has been more than a year since we first told you free gun locks were available at local police stations. The original list of those departments was Satsuma, Chickasaw, Saraland, and Daphne. We are updating that list for you now after a 3-year-old remains in the hospital because he was accidentally shot in the head.

Four police departments in Mobile still offer the free gun locks program: Mobile, Satsuma, Chickasaw, and Daphne. Only two of them actually have the locks ready to pick up: Mobile and Daphne. If you want a free lock for your gun, you can pick one up at either of those departments. Chickasaw and Satsuma say they plan on ordering more soon.

At the Daphne Police Department, the locks are part of a project called Project Child Safe. The project is sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. It gives police departments free gun locks for you to use on your guns at home. Lt. Jud Beedy with the Daphne Police Department says the locks are doing they’re job.

“We always mention to people whenever the subject comes up that we’ve got their free gun locks and they work so, if they ever need them come and get them.”

The locks are meant to teach children that guns are not toys and should not be played with. The purpose of the lock is simple: to stop the gun from firing, even if a child does get a hold of one. “It forces the gun into a position where it can’t be used so there’s no bullets in the gun,” Lt. Beedy explained.

Here’s how they work: Empty the bullets from the gun first. The lock cable goes through the handle to block the slide on top of the gun from closing. Lock it, then hide the key. Even if a child did find a way to put a bullet in the gun, it still wouldn’t fire the bullet. Each lock comes with its own instruction manual for different types of guns like shotguns, pistols, rifles, and revolvers.

Lt. Beedy hopes the guns have helped saved lives. “You know I would like to think that, but, how can you really prove that.” He said there have been no incidents of accidental shootings with a child in Daphne. The Daphne Police Department has around 100 locks left.

Original story on WSFA 12.

Santa Cruz police are offering free gun locks to residents who want to keep their firearms safe. A gun lock consists of a cord through the chamber of the weapon and attach it to a padlock, ensuring that the gun can’t be loaded or fired without the key.

The free locks and gun-safety information from Project Childsafe are available 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Monday through Thursday at the Santa Cruz police station, 155 Center St.

“Gun locks can save lives,” said Santa Cruz police spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke.

Information: www.projectchildsafe.org.

Original story in Santa Cruz Sentinel.

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) –

With two murders in Quincy in less than six months, and another scare Wednesday over what sounded like shots fired, the community remains concerned about gun violence.

The timing coincides with an effort to secure guns in homes and keep them from getting into the wrong hands. Starting Thursday, July 9, Adams County residents can pick up free gunlocks at the Adams County Health Department. It’s part of a program called Project Childsafe.

The nationwide firearms safety education program was brought here by the Quincy Police Department and SafeKids Adams County. Volunteers will be handing out cable-style gunlocks free of charge for local firearm owners. Officials are pushing gunlocks so families can safely store their firearm and prevent a child or other unauthorized person from accessing a firearm at home.

“We try to do the injury prevention. Gun safety is one of the things that we really like to focus on because it’s a risk,” SafeKids Adams County Coordinator Triena Dietrich said. “Unintentional injuries are one of the main causes of death for children.”

The locks fit most types of handguns, rifles, and shotguns.

Original story on WGEM.com.

LARGO, Fla. – As part of Project ChildSafe, and as part of an effort to help encourage firearm safety and prevent accidents, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) took part in a media conference event in Pinellas County on Tuesday morning.

U.S. Rep. David Jolly of Pinellas County, the Pinellas County Sheriff, as well as members of the Clearwater and Largo Police Departments attended the event.

The NSSF discussed the importance of firearm safety and is providing local residents with free firearm safety kits (including a gun lock), which are available for pick-up from several local law enforcement agencies, including at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Administration Building on Ulmerton Road in Largo where the event was held.

The NSSF highlighted the top ways to prevent firearm accidents, theft and misuse, as well as the best way to properly secure their firearms when not in use.

You can see some firearm safety tips from the NSSF by clicking HERE.

NSSF is a trade association of the firearms industry, which claims to have provided more than 37 million free firearms safety kits across the country since 1999. The mission of the NSSF is to promote hunting and “shooting sports.”

Rep. Jolly is listed as an official member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, which is sponsored by the NSSF as well as other industry leaders like Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s Ourdoor Fund, Remington, and Vista Outdoor. Those sponsors donate money to industry events and political figures who work in Congress to pass legislation they support.

Original story on ABC Action News (source no longer available online).

Free Trigger Locks, Firearm-Safety Literature for Gun Owners

Local gun owners can get free trigger locks and firearm-safety literature at any San Diego Police Department station as part of a nationwide program, officials announced Tuesday.

“Project Childsafe is about protecting lives and keeping unsecured firearms out of the wrong hands,” SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman said in announcing the service. “When firearms are stored safely in a home, families and communities are safer.”

The department’s involvement in the program was spurred in part by the accidental shooting death of a 10-year-old boy who was playing with a gun along with a 9-year-old neighbor girl at a Scripps Ranch home in June 2013, community- relations Officer Tracey Williams said.

Last year, the girl’s 56-year-old father, Todd Conrad Francis, pleaded guilty to child endangerment for failing to properly store his 9-mm pistol and was sentenced to four years in state prison.

The firearm-safety kits “can help provide responsible gun owners with the tools and education they need to safely store their guns away from children, at-risk individuals and criminals,” Zimmerman said.

“As we have seen for ourselves, the devastating effects of accidental deaths and injuries resulting from unsecured guns, this tragic loss of life can be avoided with proper storage,” the chief told news crews during a briefing at downtown police headquarters.

More than 37 million gun owners have gotten the safety materials since 1998, according to Project Childsafe spokesman Bill Romanelli.

“If you own a firearm, respect it, and secure it,” he said. “A hidden gun is not a safe gun, and hiding a gun is not safe storage.”

Original Story in the Times of San Diego

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The 2015 NSSF Industry Summit, held this past week in Savannah, Georgia, is one that will go down on the books. Setting a new attendance record and sold to capacity, firearms industry professionals met for two days of presentations that garnered a wealth of accolades from those who traveled from all across the country to engage in discussions aimed at increasing hunter and shooting sports participation in America.

The central theme of the 2015 Industry Summit, diversity, is one that proved the industry is preparing to significantly change the way it does business.
“We’ve talked loosely about diversity for years,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, “but there’s never been a cohesive effort across the industry as a whole to address this subject and innovate change. This year’s Industry Summit showed us that we’re about to experience a ground-swell shift in that attitude. Summit attendees came fully prepared, arriving with focused, on-point questions about what changes they need to make in their businesses to embrace a new consumer audience. Rewarded with a panel of speakers who presented numerous models of success that that are replicable from manufacturer to retailer, wildlife agency to public range, Summit attendees took away viable avenues of change that will positively impact our industry in the months to come.”

A slew of headlining speakers kept audiences on their toes over the two days of discussions, with presentations such as Rick Tobin’s “U.S. Hispanic Firearms Market.” In that discussion, Tobin stated, “The current buying power of Hispanics is $850 billion and soon to be over a trillion dollars. It is necessity for any industry to connect with Hispanic consumers if they want to grow and this NSSF funded research will help the firearms and ammunition industry obtain a better understanding of this important consumer segment.” Other sessions included “Driving Engagement Across the Generations” and “The Impact of Ethnic Diversity on the U.S. Firearms Market,” as well as panel discussions on partnering with women’s shooting organizations and working with today’s many talented firearms bloggers.

“We have a tremendous cache of current data that shows us what firearms are being produced and purchased, what shooting sports they’re being used with and who’s doing the buying and shooting,” explained Jim Curcuruto, NSSF Director, Industry Research and Analysis. “It’s gratifying to see so many important industry heads investing in that research and the ideas exchanged at the Summit, then using those things to complement their business plans and share what works with others. Industry-wide cooperation that works to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shootings sports is what the Summit is all about.”

NSSF would like to thank its many sponsors for their support of the 2015 Industry Summit, including Georgia USA, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, PolyCase Ammunition, Troy Defense, Blue Force Gear, Daniel Defense, Boy Scouts of America and Magpul.

Original article on the NSSF Blog.