Safe Firearm Storage Information Inbox

Safe firearm storage is one of many preventative actions that you can take to keep our school community and school buildings and grounds safe. When firearms are stored safely, it can help prevent them from getting into the hands of children and teens, who may use them to, intentionally or unintentionally, harm themselves or others. Safe storage can go a long way in preventing lives from being lost or permanently altered. If you have firearms in your home or if your child spends time in a space where firearms are present, there are essential steps to keep firearms secured and out of reach of unintended users.  

Firearm-Related Injuries and Deaths: A Problem We Must Solve Together

Firearm-related injuries and deaths are a public health crisis that communities face every day: 

• Since 2018, there have been more than 100 school shooting incidents per year in our country and those numbers have steadily increased.
• Approximately three-quarters of perpetrators in school-based active shooter situations acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative. This illustrates the close connection between your role as families, caregivers, and guardians and the role of Wayne-Westland Community Schools in keeping students safe while on school grounds.
• However, this issue goes beyond school-based active shooter situations and includes a variety of firearm injury types, including interpersonal violence, suicide, and unintentional fatal and nonfatal firearm injuries.
• More than 4 million children live in a household with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm. Studies have found that households with both locked firearms and locked ammunition have significantly lower risks of self-inflicted firearm injuries and even lower risks of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens compared to households that did not safely store firearms.

Safe Firearm Storage: Actions to Take to Keep Our Communities Safe
Safe firearm storage can help prevent and minimize the risk of firearm-related deaths and injuries. Firearm owners and non-owners have a role to play in building awareness of safe, responsible firearm storage. Below are simple, highly effective practices that can help to reduce firearm-related incidents in our community and help protect our kids. In addition to these practices, it is important to also engage children and adolescents in conversations about the dangers associated with using firearms and what to do and not do in the event they access a firearm to prevent fatal or non-fatal injuries. 

• Safely Store Firearms: Store firearms, always unloaded, in a tamper-proof locked container that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access. 
• Safely Store Ammunition: Store ammunition in a separate, tamper-proof locked container that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access.
• Secure Firearms: Use trigger or cable locks to prevent a firearm from firing. (See more information at Safe Firearm Storage Fact Sheet.) 

Trigger locks use a mechanism that clamps down around the trigger or trigger housing to prevent it from being pressed (Note: trigger locks should not be installed on loaded firearms). 

Cable locks thread a cable through the barrel or action of a firearm to prevent it from firing. 

Wayne-Westland Community Schools is committed to helping ensure the safety of our students and school community. We can all work together to promote awareness about how we can protect our children and our school communities by safely storing firearms to prevent tragedies from ever occurring. Thank you for being a partner in these efforts and helping reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths in our community.

Helpful Resources

More information about safe firearm storage and practices can be found below. 

• Preventing Mass Attacks in Our Communities Webinar
• Securing Your Firearm and Explaining Gun Safety to Kids
• Be SMART, Guide to Secure Gun Storage Devices, Which States Have Child-Access and/or Secure Storage Laws?, Solutions: Secure Gun Storage
• Secure Storage of Lethal Means: Keeping Children and Families Safe
• Understanding Firearm-Related Injury and School Violence Podcast Series
• End Family Fire

Sincerely,

John Dignan, Ed.D.
Superintendent