[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             FREE GUN LOCKS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to 
commend the Wayne County Sheriff's Office on its newly announced 
initiative to provide gun trigger locks free of charge to firearm 
owners in the Metro Detroit area. Partnering with local religious 
leaders and Project Child Safe, an organization that provides gun locks 
to law enforcement agencies, the Sheriff's Office seeks to reduce the 
number of firearm-related accidents that occur in the home.
  Every year, far too many children get access to guns in homes across 
the United States, often with fatal consequences. According to the 
Centers for Disease Control, in 2006, 154 children and teens died as a 
result of unintentional shootings, and in 2008, 3,997 children and 
teens were injured by a firearm unintentionally. It is imperative that 
gun owners across the country safely store their weapons out of the 
reach of children to prevent these tragic accidents. Safe storage 
includes keeping guns unloaded, using trigger locks, storing guns in a 
locked, safe place away from children, and storing ammunition in a 
separate, locked place.
  Providing gun owners with trigger locks and educating them on gun 
safety and storage has become even more important with the recent 
increase in the number of gun owners, specifically the number of 
concealed weapon permit holders. According to Wayne County Sheriff 
Benny Napoleon, there are currently 41,687 concealed weapon permit 
holders in Wayne County. There were 13,843 permit applications in 2009, 
up from 9,300 in 2008, and so far in 2010, the Sheriff's Office has 
seen an average of 61 requests per day. In light of this dramatic 
increase, we must do everything we can to reduce the risk guns pose to 
children.
  Commonsense gun safety legislation, such as mandatory child safety 
locks, could help reduce the number of tragic accidents that kill and 
injure young Americans. Again, I applaud the efforts of the Wayne 
County Sheriff's Office on their distribution of free gun trigger locks 
to gun owners in the Metro Detroit community.

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