Gun Storage Check Week was September 1 through 7 and has now come and gone. Its message, though, is vital and ongoing. Gun Storage Check Week, for those who may have missed it, is a national campaign of NSSF to encourage all gun owners to check their firearm storage practices and make sure their firearms are securely stowed.
This was the second Gun Storage Check Week of 2024 with the first held June 1 through the 7th.
Why is the firearm industry trade association putting on a full-court press promoting firearms storage? The answer is two fold. First, September is National Suicide Prevention Month and 54% of all firearm fatalities are suicide deaths. Even more troubling is the fact that 72% of veteran suicides are firearm-related. This is the main driver behind NSSF’s efforts with the Veterans Administration’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Together the two organizations are charting a path to reduce the veteran suicide rate. They’re joined by several companies within the firearm and ammunition industry.
The second reason NSSF has made a push towards better firearms storage, and what everyone hopes will be an increased reduction in firearm fatalities is, well, to put it simply, it’s the right thing to do. No grand or mysterious motivation other than we all recognize this as a problem and we should all be working on a solution.
Before you say to yourself, ‘it’s about time the industry did something’ keep in mind that firearms manufacturers have long been providing cable or trigger locks with new firearms. I can remember 20 years ago packing up new guns for shipment and stuffing the gun case with an owners’ manual, warranty information, branding stickers and, of course, a cable lock.
If you think back to the number of new firearms sold over the past 20 years, and the fact that the bulk of those are likely from the leading gun makers, that’s an enormous number of gun locks put into the hands of gun owners.
During that same period the National Shooting Sports Foundation has been providing cable locks for free to communities through a program that originated at NSSF, Project ChildSafe. Since 1998 41 million free gun locks have been distributed, in partnership with 15,000 law enforcement partners and an additional 13,000 retail stores, conservation groups, hunting clubs, and safety instructors. It’s the most comprehensive firearm safety and education program in the nation – and it was created by gun owners for gun owners.
In other words, NSSF has been the loudest and strongest voice on safely storing firearms for more than two decades, but you’d never know that if all you knew about NSSF was what you learned from mainstream media who have religiously carried water for the various gun control groups in an effort to both vilify the industry and put it out of business.
But that’s another discussion for another day. NSSF is and has been leading the fight, and its member companies have been part of that effort all along the way. So where does that bring us two days past the end of Gun Storage Check Week? Easy…it’s time to grow up and get serious about how we, as individual gun owners, store our firearms.
Like so many, I was very casual about firearms storage. Living alone for much of my time working in the industry, I wasn’t focused on spending money on gun storage as I was the only one with a key to my house.
A naive viewpoint to be sure. I finally bought a Stack-On gun cabinet when I had to secure my firearms for longterm storage in my house because I was relocating across the country for a job. The idea of being away from my place, which was to be left vacant for months, and then years, had me re-thinking my casual approach.
I still have that gun cabinet but it’s packed, and not really made for holding more than a few long guns and handguns. And like many of you, ‘a few’ isn’t a gun-owning status I really subscribe to.
Having participated in and written about the second NSSF/VA LMS Roundtable which took place last September, I began facing the fact that I needed to take a more grown-up approach to storing the firearms I own and the new ones I was sure to acquire.
Unfortunately, the good ol’ days of affordable gun safes seem to be long gone as rocketing inflation has made the kind of gun safe I want a lot less financially palatable. Even worse, my home doesn’t have a great spot for a safe – like a closed off room with no outside access. Oh, how I envy those with a secure gun room in their homes.
But while the huge gun safe is currently off the table, there is a veritable cornucopia of safe storage options available, with more announced almost weekly as that segment of the industry seems to grow.
What I finally decided on and purchased was a gun cabinet from SecureIt with enough capacity, biometric lock programability and — this is kind of important these days — no third party override back doors. It also has a narrow footprint that’s ideal for the space I have for it.
It’s a good fit for my needs and wants, for the moment, and I can easily expand my safe storage options in my home with other products from small single gun lockboxes to a massive fireproof safe. What I chose might not be right for you and your needs, but we’re all different when it comes to how we store and use our guns.
However, as NSSF is pointing out, it’s time to get serious about storing our firearms. Stop putting off what should be the inevitable, do your research, pick a storage product, and buy it.
You don’t want to come home one day to find your home ransacked and your favorite pistol or shotgun gone, along with all your jewelry and cash. Or worse, come home to find someone you know and love no longer with us. Guns, cash, jewelry are replaceable. People are not.