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1. What is Project ChildSafe?

Project ChildSafe is a nationwide program whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearms owners through the distribution of key safety education messages and free gun locking devices (firearms safety kits). The program is supported by a U.S. Department of Justice grant (DOJ), the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), and is a component of Project Safe Neighborhoods.

2. What is the National Shooting Sports Foundation?

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, with over 3,000 members, is the shooting sports industry’s largest and most diverse trade association. Formed in 1961, the NSSF manages a variety of outreach programs with a special emphasis on efforts to promote firearm safety education to all gun owners.

3. What is the goal of Project ChildSafe?

Firearms accidents in the home can result from an unauthorized individual, often a child, finding a loaded and unsecured firearm in the home. The risk of firearms-related unintentional injuries or deaths can be reduced when firearms owners are aware of and fully understand their responsibility to handle firearms safely and store them in a secure manner. The goal of Project ChildSafe is to inform and educate all firearms owners on key safety issues and to provide firearms safety kits that include a gun locking device.

4. What is the difference between Project ChildSafe and Project HomeSafe?

Project HomeSafe was developed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to provide key firearms safety education messages to non-traditional firearms owners. Project ChildSafe, with an increased emphasis on preventing children from accessing a loaded firearm in the home, is an expansion of the Project HomeSafe program.

5. What is Project Safe Neighborhoods and why is Project ChildSafe a component of that program?

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a comprehensive, strategic approach to reducing gun violence in America. The present Administration, through the U.S. Department of Justice, is providing the resources necessary for Project Safe Neighborhoods to be successful in reducing gun violence in local communities and is funding a number of programs that target gun crime. Project ChildSafe is a nationwide firearms safety education outreach program that complements these efforts to reduce gun violence by providing a prevention component that encourages safe handling and proper storage of firearms in the home.

6. What is NSSF’s role in Project ChildSafe?

NSSF was appointed by DOJ to administer Project ChildSafe because of NSSF’s experience and expertise in providing gun locks and safety education messages to firearms owners nationwide through the Project HomeSafe program. NSSF supplies safety kits, which include a gun lock and accompanying educational material on firearm safety, to its program partners and provides additional support and media outreach materials.

7. Who are Project ChildSafe partners?

Project ChildSafe establishes partnerships with governors, lieutenant governors, U.S. Attorneys, community leaders, and law enforcement agencies to allow for efficient statewide distribution of firearm safety kits in all states.

8. What kind of locks are being distributed by Project ChildSafe?

The gun locking device distributed in the Project ChildSafe program is a cable-style gun lock that meets the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) current testing protocol standard (F2369-04). Cable locks require that many types of firearms be unloaded before the cable lock is installed, providing an extra level of safety.