July 22, 2024 • 32 mins
NC S.A.F.E. (Secure All Firearms Effectively) is North Carolina’s statewide initiative designed to raise awareness of the importance of safe firearm storage. Established in 2023, the initiative provides resources and best practices for firearm storage and safety. NC S.A.F.E. is not associated with any advocacy-based initiatives related to gun laws or regulations.
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(00:00):
Good morning. I'm Linda Silver,and welcome to this week's edition of Carolina
Focus. Joining me this morning,we are very privileged to have him join
us. The Deputy Secretary of theNorth Carolina Department of Public Safety, William
Lassiter. Good morning, mister Lassiter, welcome, good morning, Good morning.
(00:21):
It's a privilege to have you joinus. There's so much going on
in the world, much less NorthCarolina right now, and one of the
huge topics is guns and gun safety. And it's hard to watch a newscast,
to pick up a newspaper, lookat social media and someone else has
(00:46):
died at the hands of a gun. So what can we do to help
stem this tide? Well, Linda, you're exactly ryan. If you look
at the data across the state ofNorth Carolina, unfortunately, gun deaths have
become the number one killer of ourchildren. So it's the number one injury
(01:07):
death. It used to be caraccidents, but gun deaths overtook them two
years ago and have continued to outpacevehicle deaths as far as the number one
killer of our children. And Ithink that that should be a call of
action to all of us in thestate of North Carolina to really look at
this issue and see what else canwe do to prevent gun violence from ending
(01:30):
another child's life. And so justto kind of look at the numbers.
Also with juvenile crime, we've seenthe number of juveniles that are committing crimes
with guns has greatly increased from fouryears ago, where it was about fifteen
hundred incidents of gun violence or gunrelated crimes that were committed by juveniles,
last year that was forty five hundred, So that's almost a three hundred percent
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increase in the number of gun relatedcrimes that are being committed by our kids.
So the question has to become,how are our kids getting these guns?
How are young people that are notlegally authorized to have those guns getting
those guns? And so what we'reseeing is that most of those guns are
coming from the kid's own home,from their parents or from a relative,
(02:15):
or they're stealing those guns. Andso those are the two ways that we're
really seeing that young people are gettingaccess to these firearms. Of the ones
that are coming from homes, aboutsixty percent of all juvenile crime is committed
with a fiarm comes from a kid'sgetting the gun from home, and the
other forty percent comes from them gettingthem illegally normally on the street, or
by stealing them. And so whatwe're asking for is that the citizens of
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the state North Carolina to take actionby securing your farms. Is your stuff,
make sure it doesn't get stolen,and we want to make sure that
that's the case. And there's severalsteps that you can take as a citizen
to make sure that you are aresponsible gun owner. This campaign that we're
doing, which is called NC safe, which stands for Secure All Farms effectively,
is not a campaign about trying toregulate guns. This is simply a
(03:00):
campaign about how to become a responsiblegun owner. If you're going to be
a gun owner, you've got totake the responsibilities that are associated with that.
And the number one thing that youcan do is secure that firearm,
either with a lock on the firearm, but preferably in a safe inside your
home where the mo is separated fromthe farm and the farm has a gunlock
own it inside that safe. Andso that's really what we're trying to spread
(03:23):
this message about, is this NCsafe campaign and get people involved in spreading
that message across the state. InNorth Carolina. You think that people would
be excited to do this. Weare, as you said, We are
not saying don't have a gun,because that's political suicide. Right now,
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we don't go there. You're goingto have a gun, you're going to
have it in your house, pleasesecure it. And it amazes me also
to hear the number of weapons thatare stolen out of unlocked cars, right
that horrible. Yeah, you know, I tell people all the time that
(04:04):
your car is not a gun safe, and especially if you don't lock your
car. And so what we foundis we did a couple of studies in
just a couple of cities across thestate of North Carolina last year. One
was Durham and Durham, for example, they had almost three hundred guns that
were stolen from vehicles last year.And of those vehicles where guns were stolen
from, sixty percent of the carswere not even locked. The gun wasn't
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locked in the vehicle, and thecar itself was not locked. And so
these are basic steps that you cantake to protect your property. Understand that
to a juvenile that sees a gunsitting on the front seat of a car
or the dashboard of a car,that is you know, five to five
hundred to one thousand dollars just sittingout on the front seat of that car.
You couldn't put that cash on thefront seat of your car and leave
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your car unlocked. So why areyou leaving a gun that is valued that
way on the street on the frontseat of your car or on the dashboard.
So we really are trying to richpeople. If you're going to take
a gun with you in your vehicleto take it back into your house at
night, don't store it in yourvehicle overnight. If you're going to leave
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it in your vehicle when you're goneinside to go shopping or something, lock
it up in the trunk or ina safe someplace where it's out of sight
of from people that come by yourvehicle, because it's an easy target for
people to target your car, andyou don't want people breaking into your car.
So the simple step that you cantake is to hide that gun so
that it's not in plain sight forsomeone to pick up. And the last
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thing that I'll say on the vehicleissue is it's perfectly fine to have free
speech in the United States. Weall believe in free speech. So you
can have whatever type of bumper stickeryou want on the back of your car.
But if the back of your carsays that you're packing heat, just
know that people are probably going totarget your car as a place that they
might be able to find a gun. And so I just tell people to
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be careful about what messages they're they'reputting on the back of their cars,
on those bumper stickers, because sometimesit actually makes you a bigger target for
those deaths to occur. Well.Absolutely, and especially if there are young
people who are not in school rightnow and they're roaming the parking lots of
malls and things, and if youleave something like that exposed, that is
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an invitation. That's probably what they'rethinking. Oh, it says, open
up and steal me. Look whatI found, Look what I can get
exactly. And that's you know,the increase that we've seen in the number
of guns that young people are gettinga lot of those are coming from being
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stolen from vehicles. And as Itell people all the time, a lot
of people go out and buy agun for protection of their family or for
their community, and by allowing forsomeone to steal that gun, you have
just created a less safe community.You're getting a gun to a child who
is impulsive who doesn't make the bestdecisions all time. And so what we're
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trying to encourage people is to takethose basic steps, the basic steps to
be a responsible gun owner. Andyou know, what we found during the
pandemic was that a lot of peoplewent out and bought a gun for the
very first time. So in twentytwenty, we saw during the pandemic,
the first few months of the pandemic, an eighty percent increase in gun permits
being issued in state of North Carolinaand that, yeah, and so lots
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of people that have never owned agun before are now owning a gun for
the first time in their life.And so we want to make sure that
they understand this message because they don'tcome with a lot of instructions when you
buy them. We want to makesure that people understand that your responsibility is
to make sure that gun does notget into the hands of someone that does
not need to have it. Youare absolutely right. And with an increase
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and that number of guns on theI'm just going to say, on the
street or available in households, howmany of these people have actually taken a
class on how to properly handle afirearm? Much less store a firearm and
keep it safe. Absolutely. Sothat's one of the things that we are
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encouraging people to also do is ifyou purchase a firearm, go take a
class, take a class on howto use that farm appropriately, how to
store that farm appropriately, how totake care of that firearm, and and
don't just go purchase something that youdon't know a whole lot about without taking
that additional step. So we areworking with gun ranges across the state in
North Carolina. We're working with huntingclubs across the state in North Carolina to
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help spread this message because we knowthat the target audience is gun owners.
We want to get to gun ownersand have that conversation and not belittle them
because they made the choice to purchasea farm. But now that you purchase
that farm, let's make sure thatyou have the right instructions and understand how
to properly take care of that firearm. And I just want to reiterate we
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are not telling people not to buya gun. We want people to handle
the gun properly and store the gunsafely. Now, is there such a
thing as a small gun safe thatyou can lock your your gun in and
then put it in your trunk,yes, and they're there what are called
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gun vaults that can attach to thevehicle itself, so you can actually make
it part of the vehicle. Soit's very hard to steal that gun vault,
and then you can lock up thegun inside that gun vault. They
can attach either in the trunk orthey can be below the driver's seat of
your car. You can put themin there. In the state of North
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Carolina, you're allowed to store thatfirearm in one of those gun vaults and
you don't have to have a securei mean a concealed carry permit to do
that. If you when if youwere already pulled over by a law enforcement
officer, you just need to tellthem that you have a gun in the
vehicle and is locked up a gunvault so that they understand that that is
(10:01):
present in the vehicle when they pullyou over. But we highly encourage people
to do that because it only takesa few seconds for a child to get
into your car, especially if youhave children yourself putting in the glove compartment
unlocked. We've had three kids inthe last year that have gotten guns under
the age of eight. Three kidsin the state North Carolina in the last
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year that have gotten guns from glovecompartments in vehicles and shot themselves or shot
a sibling. And so please,if you're a parent, make sure that
that gun is not accessible to achild, if you don't believe your child
can find your gun. I alwaystell people, think about when you try
to hide your Christmas gifts at Christmasfrom your kids and make sure they don't
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see them, how often do theyfind them? The same thing happens with
guns. Kids find them in yourhouse or in your vehicle, and they're
curious, and because of their they'renot as developed, their muscles aren't as
developed. Often they will point thatgun towards them to try to actually make
it work, which often ends withthe kid harming themselves in those cases.
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And those are just tragic situations thatis completely preventable, completely preventable by putting
a lock on that gun or puttingthat gun in a gun safe. And
we want people to stay safe,and we don't want to hear these horrible
stories about children turning guns on themselves. And guns are heavy, and they
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don't realize how heavy they are.And that's another reason that oh, look
at this and you pull the triggerbecause it was easy and you don't know
who you're going to hurt or kill. Yeah, And so what we've seen
in the state North Carolina is thatabout forty two percent of all households in
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the state North Carolina now are gunowners, but fifty percent of those households
say that they do not lock upthose firearms. And so what we're trying
to do is change that fifty percent. We're trying to target that population and
say, hey, look, thisis a simple step you can take.
It's like putting your kid in achild's seat when you're when you're driving in
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state of North Carolina, same thingis true. Just lock up that gun.
It only takes a few seconds.And the only you know, concerns
that we've heard from gun owners iswhy I want to have my gun accessible
to me in an emergency. Mostof the safts that are are produced today
can use biometrics, meaning that youcan use your thumb print or fingerprint and
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open that safe in a matter ofseconds if that's your concern, and so,
just make sure that that gun isnot accessible to your child. Don't
give them access to the safe.If you want to teach your kids about
hunting safety, or going hunting withyour child. You need to do that
under a supervised environment. I'm aScout leader. I train kids all the
time on how to use firearms,but we spend the first half of that
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class teaching them about safety. Youcan do that as a parent also,
and make sure that your child knowsthe right way to handle those fararms,
but you want to limit their accessto only when you're supervising them with that
firearm. Absolutely, and curiosity isjust huge among children. You don't have
to be a parent or an expertto know that. And if that gun
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is not properly secured and they've gotbuddies coming over and it's hey, look
what my dad has or my momhas, and these kids can get into
serious trouble. And I hate togo here, but there are some kids
who are suicidal or thinking about it, and that gun is a wonderful opportunity
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to just say I'm done and theydon't even think about it and it's over.
And that's yeah. You bring upYeah, you bring up an excellent
point, Linda. So of kidsthat commit suicide in the state North Carolina,
kids that try it with a fararm, ninety five percent of the time
they're successful. If they try tokill themselves with a farm is almost always
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successful. If they try other meanslike overdosing or cutting or those other types
of ways to commit suicide, onlyfifty percent of the time are they successful.
So guns are extremely lethal in makingthat decision to commit suicide. It
also doesn't give you an opportunity torethink the situation, where maybe a drug
overdose or cutting would allow that person, once they've started it, to say,
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wait a second, this is notreally what I want to do with
a gun. It's permanent, it'sover in most of those cases. And
so a lot of times parents theyknow what's going on with their kids.
I have two teenage kids myself,and I would love to tell you I
know everything that they're involved in andthat they you know that exactly where their
mental health status is at all times, But we don't know always. The
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reality is that a lot of timeswhen kids are in depression or suicidal,
we may not know all the thingsthat are happening with that child. With
your own kid, And don't letthe purchase that you made of a farm,
which you purchase most likely to protectyour family, end up being the
thing that harms your family, andthe way that you can prevent that is
by simply secure in that farm inyour home. And this is not just
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a child issue. I will tellyou that one of the deserving things that
we know about firearm dests in thestate of North Carolina is that suicides are
more prevalent than homicides when it comesto gun deaths. More suicides are committed
with farms than homicides, So peopletaking their own lives, and in our
state, the biggest population where thatoccurs is children and then veterans, veterans
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returning for war. We owe itto our veterans to make sure that they
are safe and that we take careof them and they have the proper mental
health services that they need. Andso we encourage even adults, even if
you're living alone, to lock upthat gun in a safe, because what
the research has shown us is thatthe person has to go into the safe,
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they have to find the ammunition,they have to take the gunlock off
a gun that gives them the timeto reconsider what may be an impulsive decision
to commit suicide. If we canpause that decision by a few minutes,
then we can often get that personto reconsider it, and we want to
make sure that people understand that thereare resources that are available in the same
North Carolina for people that are consideringsuicide. You can always call nine eight
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eight to get a suicide help.There's always someone there that is there to
listen and talk to you. Soif that is something that's going on with
you personally, I encourage you tocall nine eight eight and get help that
you need to rethink that decision.We want you to be here and so
please take that step if you're consideringthat in your own life. We do
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want you to be safe. Andyou made a very valid point a moment
ago about pills and cutting and sometimesyou think, well, I'm just gonna
cut myself, and then they makea cut and it's like, well that
freaking hurts, you know, andthat right pauses them enough to step away
from it, and it makes themthink. But if they don't have an
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opportunity to think, if this gunis just lying around and you are having
as a child, the worst dayof your life, and life isn't worth
living, you don't think about it. You have no pause, and unless
the phone rings or the adult comeshome, or you're interrupted somehow, beforehand.
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It's a tragedy. Absolutely, absolutely, you know, teenagers are impulsive
by nature. The data is veryclear now, We've got lots of good
brain science that's clear on what howyoung people think. And what we know
now is that impulsivity is the highestit ever is in your life when you're
fifteen sixteen years old, meaning thatimpulsivity means basically, you don't think about
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a behavior before you do it.You just do it. And what we
want to do is give that kidan opportunity to pause and think about the
behavior before it happens. And that'swhat by putting a gunlock and putting a
gun in a gun safe, yougive the pause that is necessary often for
that kid to actually think about therepercussions of what they're about to do.
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And so that's why we encourage peopleto take this step. And so you
know, there's a lot of resourceson our website which is incsafe dot org
that's in C S A f Edot org. People can go on the
website and get all kinds of information. If you're a parent that's sending a
child over to a sleepover, forexample, at a at another kid's house,
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how do you have the conversation withthat parent about do you have a
gun in your house? Is thatgun locked up? That's a conversation that
you should be having if you're sendingyour child over to another person's house,
because if that gun's available to otherpeople during that sleepover, then that may
be a tragic situation that could couldoccur. But you don't want to alienate
those other parents. You don't wantthem to feel bad about that purchase maybe
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of having a firearm. If you'recomfortable with them going to that house with
a firearm in the house as longas that firearm is locked up in a
safe. So how do you havethat conversation. We've got resources on our
website that walk a parent through howto have that conversation in a way that's
not gonna end the friendship that youhave with that other parent. And so
we've got great resources there for forfor parents. We've got great resources available
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for pediatricians. We were re encouragingdoctors across the state in North Carolina to
have this conversation on well checks,and so we've got the questions to ask
on the website if you want toif you need a gunlock and don't have
a gunlock for your gun. Wehave gunlocks that are available across the state.
In Old Carolina, we've sent gunlocksto every local health department, so
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you can go to your local healthdepartment and pick up a gunlock. You
can go to your sheriff's department officein your in your county, or you
can go to a local police department. Most local police departments we've sent gunlocks
to also, And if you can'tfind one any of those locations and still
don't don't have a gunlock, wecan you can email us on the website.
There's an email link there that youcan send us an email that says
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that you need a gunlock, andwe'll send one to you. So there's
no excuse not having it. Absolutely, absolutely, We've already given out fifty
thousand gunlocks. We've got sixty thousandmore that we just ordered in that we're
going to send across the state.In North Carolina, two people, if
the reason that you're saying that youcan't have a gunlock on your gun is
because you can't afford it, we'vetaken that barrier away. There's there's no
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reason that you can't take the simplestep of locking up that gun. Now
in your home, because we're goingto provide you with the resource to do
that with and that is such ablessing. Now, with a gunlock,
I don't know anything about them,So I'm going to ask for those of
us who don't have a clue.Is it something that works with a key
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or is it with a thumbprint?Do you set it up? I don't
know, So let's let's educate therest of us who don't know. Absolutely.
So, there's several different types ofgunlocks. There's what's a cable lock.
That's the kind that we're providing topeople across the Stave in North Carolina.
A cable lock basically goes through thefiring mechanism out through the bottom of
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the gun. If if it's ahandgun and it has a magazine, it
would go through the magazine chamber upthrough the firing chamber of the gun.
So it's it can't be used withthat gunlock in it because you can't reload
the gun and you can't have thefiring mechanism can't go off with the cable
lock in the gun. That's typicallya key lock. You can get ones
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that are coded also that have adigital you know, a term combination on
it, so you can get inboth formats. We use a key lock,
and so we tell parents, ifyou're going to use a cable lock
with a key lock, make surethat you take that key with you,
you put it on your key chain, or or you keep it in a
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location where your kids are not goingto have access to that key. There
are also what are called trigger locks, which is just a lot that goes
over the trigger itself that stops thegun from being able to be fired because
it locks the trigger forward. Thosecan be combination locks or key locks also,
and so you can get either formatthat you're that you want to use.
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There are also obviously safes. They'rethe safes that are out there are
obviously combination you have combination saves,and you have the biometric safe or key
saves. And the biometric safes arethe fastest ones to use. They use
a fun print or a fingerprint toopen up that that safe. You can
also use just like you can useon your smart home devices. Now you
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can use your voice as the combinationand so that that's another way to use
those new biometric safes that have comeout. Of course, there's the combination
locks. And also the key locks. On our website, we actually have
a video where the State Highway Patrolactually demonstrates how to use each of those
types of locks. And so ifyou don't, if you're unfamiliar with how
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to actually put the lock on thefirearm itself, we have great training videos
that are free on our website thatyou can go to and see those.
So that's on NCSAF dot org.Also, when we if you get one
of our locks, our cable locks, we have a QR code on the
cable lock postcard that comes with itthat gives you a link to that video.
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So when you if you request oneof our locks, you'll get that
QR code on the postcard that comeswith the lock that will take you straight
to that video that shows you aState Highway Patrol when demonstrating how to use
that lock itself on both your handgunsor your long guns. You can use
on either one of those devices tolock up that firearm. That's wonderful.
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There is no excuse not to getthis gun lock. You're providing it for
free and you're explaining how to useit. I can't imagine somebody going,
ah, no, I don't needit. Yes, you do. Even
if you don't have children in yourhousehold. If you have family that comes
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to your household with small children,you're not watching them every minute of every
day. And as you said earlier, kids are very curious. Absolutely absolutely
so if you're a grandparent or youraunt and uncle, if you ever have
kids that come into your household,then this is a necessary step that you
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need to take. You're responsible forthat by law. If that kid gets
access to that firearm and harm somebodywith that gun, you are responsible.
And so we want to make surethat people understand that that you are responsible
for that child getting access to thatfirearm if they come into your home,
and the best step to take isjust go ahead and lock it up.
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And that way, if you haveunexpected guests that come over, that gun
is already locked up and out ofthe way and you don't have to worry
about Oh man, I need toremember that at the last minute when a
child comes over into your house.And so we really encourage you to do
that. The other thing that Iwould say is that by putting your guns
in a gunlock, if someone wereto break into your home, it makes
it much more difficult for them toget access to those firearms and use those
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firearms to harm somebody in your community. I think that all of us would
be greatly concerned if we find outthat a gun is stolen from our household
and that that gun is later usedto harm somebody in our community. And
so this is a simple step thatyou can take to make sure that that
gun is not used in a criminalact down the road. And that is
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great advice because it seems like almostdaily we're hearing of guns being stolen,
either from people's houses or people's cars, or heaven forbid, they're ramming vehicles
into gun stores and looting guns.We've got to do something, yeah,
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you know. The the increase accessto firearms is what we're seeing across the
state and across the country. Gundests are up. The number of gun
dests in our states has greatly increased, but it has across the country also,
And so this is really an issuewhere I think that we can all
come together. This doesn't have tobe a partisan issue or political issue.
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It should just be a safety issue. We want our communities to be safe,
and the best way to do thatis to limit access to those farms
to people that shouldn't have them,and people that shouldn't have them are kids,
felons that are not allowed to haveguns anymore, people that had domestic
orders against them where they've domestically abusedsomebody in there in their own home.
We want to make sure that thosepeople don't have access to the farms because
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they've shown a prevalence in the pastof harming people with those guns, and
it's our responsibility to make sure thoseguns don't get in their hands. Exactly,
and in a fit of temper.This may not have been your usual
m O, but you could justlose your mind and reach for your gun,
and you've got a tragedy. Andwe want to we want to avert
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that. Absolutely all this information thatwe've talked about this morning, that you've
given us such clarity about is onyour website. That's correct. So our
web yep, our website is incsafedot org. And so you can go
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on that website that's in c likethe state of North Carolina n C SAVEE
s a f E dot org andyou can go on and get all kinds
of information if you're interested in havinga community event in your area at a
PTA meeting to raise awareness about thisissue. We've got the information on how
to have that community event at yourlocal school or at your church or your
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rotary club, and it gives youexactly how to have the conversation in a
way that comes across that's not youknow, making fun of someone because of
the decision that they made to buya farm, but it's asking them to
make the right decision about how toresponsibly own that farm. Right. We're
not being judgmental here. We justwant people to be safe. I know
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some hoa's that would probably be interestedin having this program as well, simply
for the safety of your neighbors andyour friends and your family. So absolutely
so. We're encouraging any any communitygroups that want to get involved to get
involved. It's really easy to doif you go on the website. You
can also join our social media campaignsthat are out there and just repost the
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materials that we're putting out there,and that helps get the message across to
your neighbors and your friends that youthink this is an important issue that fararms
need to be securely stored in yourin your homes. We're doing public service
announcements, we're doing billboards, we'redoing gas advertisements. So we're trying to
get the message out there. Butone of the things that we know about
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getting a message of like this acrossis that it really needs to come from
a trusted messenger. And you canbe that person. If you're a gun
owner and you think responsible gun ownershipis important, then help us spread this
message. This is a message thatI think everybody in your community needs to
hear, and we need to reducethat fifty percent of households that are currently
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not storing those firearms appropriately. Weneed to change that number if we're going
to change the number of people dyingby gun desk right now in our state.
And this is a great way tostart. Is you've got to communicate.
You've got to have this conversation,and you can't be afraid to have
this conversation. And it's wonderful thatyou've got tips on your site on how
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to do it without upsetting people,because that doesn't achieve anything. Absolutely absolutely,
and I think if you talk toany law enforcement officer in your community,
or if you talk to anybody that'sinvolved in public safety, they're going
to tell you this is a hugeissue. Gun violence has become a huge
issue. You know what, yousee it on the news every night,
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and I think most gun owners believethat we've got to figure out a way
to reduce the amount of gun violencethat's occurring, and safe storage is a
completely This passed the General Assembly inthe state of North Carolina completely bipartisan.
I think only one person voted againstthe bill. This is a bipartisan issue
that everybody can get behind and itcan also save lives. And so we
(30:26):
would greatly appreciate your participation in thecampaign and helping us spread the message.
Well, we want to do everythingwe can to spread the message and to
keep people safe. We were talkingearlier. When I was growing up,
kids would use their fists. Nowkids are reaching for guns, and we've
got to find a way to stopthat or at least stem the tide.
(30:51):
So absolutely, and you know I'veworked on school safety also, is one
of my roles in my job ishow do we create safer schools. Last
year, we had, you know, over three hundred guns come on school
campuses last year and stayed in NorthCarolina. Most of those guns came from
the kid's own home. That's aparent that did not properly secure their firearm
(31:11):
in their household. That's something that'scompletely preventable. Think about the terrorism that
it creates on a school campus.You know, like I said, I
have two kids in school myself,and when a lockdown occurs on that school
campus, it just it scares thekids, it scares the parents, it
scares the teachers, and education canoccur in that type of environment. We
(31:32):
can take the simple steps by lockingup those firearms to make sure that does
not happen in the future. Thankyou so very much for spending time with
us this morning on Carolina Focus.I think this conversation has caught a lot
of people's attention on how to keeptheir kids safe, how to keep their
guns safe. And as we said, we're not saying don't buy your gun,
(31:56):
we're saying secure it properly so thatwe don't have tragedies, especially with
children. And if you need moreinformation, as William Lassiter suggested, you
go to ncsafe dot org.
Good morning. I'm Linda Silver,and welcome to this week's edition of Carolina
Focus. Joining me this morning,we are very privileged to have him join
us. The Deputy Secretary of theNorth Carolina Department of Public Safety, William
Lassiter. Good morning, mister Lassiter, welcome, good morning, Good morning.
(00:21):
It's a privilege to have you joinus. There's so much going on
in the world, much less NorthCarolina right now, and one of the
huge topics is guns and gun safety. And it's hard to watch a newscast,
to pick up a newspaper, lookat social media and someone else has
(00:46):
died at the hands of a gun. So what can we do to help
stem this tide? Well, Linda, you're exactly ryan. If you look
at the data across the state ofNorth Carolina, unfortunately, gun deaths have
become the number one killer of ourchildren. So it's the number one injury
(01:07):
death. It used to be caraccidents, but gun deaths overtook them two
years ago and have continued to outpacevehicle deaths as far as the number one
killer of our children. And Ithink that that should be a call of
action to all of us in thestate of North Carolina to really look at
this issue and see what else canwe do to prevent gun violence from ending
(01:30):
another child's life. And so justto kind of look at the numbers.
Also with juvenile crime, we've seenthe number of juveniles that are committing crimes
with guns has greatly increased from fouryears ago, where it was about fifteen
hundred incidents of gun violence or gunrelated crimes that were committed by juveniles,
last year that was forty five hundred, So that's almost a three hundred percent
(01:52):
increase in the number of gun relatedcrimes that are being committed by our kids.
So the question has to become,how are our kids getting these guns?
How are young people that are notlegally authorized to have those guns getting
those guns? And so what we'reseeing is that most of those guns are
coming from the kid's own home,from their parents or from a relative,
(02:15):
or they're stealing those guns. Andso those are the two ways that we're
really seeing that young people are gettingaccess to these firearms. Of the ones
that are coming from homes, aboutsixty percent of all juvenile crime is committed
with a fiarm comes from a kid'sgetting the gun from home, and the
other forty percent comes from them gettingthem illegally normally on the street, or
by stealing them. And so whatwe're asking for is that the citizens of
(02:38):
the state North Carolina to take actionby securing your farms. Is your stuff,
make sure it doesn't get stolen,and we want to make sure that
that's the case. And there's severalsteps that you can take as a citizen
to make sure that you are aresponsible gun owner. This campaign that we're
doing, which is called NC safe, which stands for Secure All Farms effectively,
is not a campaign about trying toregulate guns. This is simply a
(03:00):
campaign about how to become a responsiblegun owner. If you're going to be
a gun owner, you've got totake the responsibilities that are associated with that.
And the number one thing that youcan do is secure that firearm,
either with a lock on the firearm, but preferably in a safe inside your
home where the mo is separated fromthe farm and the farm has a gunlock
own it inside that safe. Andso that's really what we're trying to spread
(03:23):
this message about, is this NCsafe campaign and get people involved in spreading
that message across the state. InNorth Carolina. You think that people would
be excited to do this. Weare, as you said, We are
not saying don't have a gun,because that's political suicide. Right now,
(03:43):
we don't go there. You're goingto have a gun, you're going to
have it in your house, pleasesecure it. And it amazes me also
to hear the number of weapons thatare stolen out of unlocked cars, right
that horrible. Yeah, you know, I tell people all the time that
(04:04):
your car is not a gun safe, and especially if you don't lock your
car. And so what we foundis we did a couple of studies in
just a couple of cities across thestate of North Carolina last year. One
was Durham and Durham, for example, they had almost three hundred guns that
were stolen from vehicles last year.And of those vehicles where guns were stolen
from, sixty percent of the carswere not even locked. The gun wasn't
(04:28):
locked in the vehicle, and thecar itself was not locked. And so
these are basic steps that you cantake to protect your property. Understand that
to a juvenile that sees a gunsitting on the front seat of a car
or the dashboard of a car,that is you know, five to five
hundred to one thousand dollars just sittingout on the front seat of that car.
You couldn't put that cash on thefront seat of your car and leave
(04:49):
your car unlocked. So why areyou leaving a gun that is valued that
way on the street on the frontseat of your car or on the dashboard.
So we really are trying to richpeople. If you're going to take
a gun with you in your vehicleto take it back into your house at
night, don't store it in yourvehicle overnight. If you're going to leave
(05:09):
it in your vehicle when you're goneinside to go shopping or something, lock
it up in the trunk or ina safe someplace where it's out of sight
of from people that come by yourvehicle, because it's an easy target for
people to target your car, andyou don't want people breaking into your car.
So the simple step that you cantake is to hide that gun so
that it's not in plain sight forsomeone to pick up. And the last
(05:32):
thing that I'll say on the vehicleissue is it's perfectly fine to have free
speech in the United States. Weall believe in free speech. So you
can have whatever type of bumper stickeryou want on the back of your car.
But if the back of your carsays that you're packing heat, just
know that people are probably going totarget your car as a place that they
might be able to find a gun. And so I just tell people to
(05:55):
be careful about what messages they're they'reputting on the back of their cars,
on those bumper stickers, because sometimesit actually makes you a bigger target for
those deaths to occur. Well.Absolutely, and especially if there are young
people who are not in school rightnow and they're roaming the parking lots of
malls and things, and if youleave something like that exposed, that is
(06:19):
an invitation. That's probably what they'rethinking. Oh, it says, open
up and steal me. Look whatI found, Look what I can get
exactly. And that's you know,the increase that we've seen in the number
of guns that young people are gettinga lot of those are coming from being
(06:40):
stolen from vehicles. And as Itell people all the time, a lot
of people go out and buy agun for protection of their family or for
their community, and by allowing forsomeone to steal that gun, you have
just created a less safe community.You're getting a gun to a child who
is impulsive who doesn't make the bestdecisions all time. And so what we're
(07:01):
trying to encourage people is to takethose basic steps, the basic steps to
be a responsible gun owner. Andyou know, what we found during the
pandemic was that a lot of peoplewent out and bought a gun for the
very first time. So in twentytwenty, we saw during the pandemic,
the first few months of the pandemic, an eighty percent increase in gun permits
being issued in state of North Carolinaand that, yeah, and so lots
(07:26):
of people that have never owned agun before are now owning a gun for
the first time in their life.And so we want to make sure that
they understand this message because they don'tcome with a lot of instructions when you
buy them. We want to makesure that people understand that your responsibility is
to make sure that gun does notget into the hands of someone that does
not need to have it. Youare absolutely right. And with an increase
(07:49):
and that number of guns on theI'm just going to say, on the
street or available in households, howmany of these people have actually taken a
class on how to properly handle afirearm? Much less store a firearm and
keep it safe. Absolutely. Sothat's one of the things that we are
(08:11):
encouraging people to also do is ifyou purchase a firearm, go take a
class, take a class on howto use that farm appropriately, how to
store that farm appropriately, how totake care of that firearm, and and
don't just go purchase something that youdon't know a whole lot about without taking
that additional step. So we areworking with gun ranges across the state in
North Carolina. We're working with huntingclubs across the state in North Carolina to
(08:35):
help spread this message because we knowthat the target audience is gun owners.
We want to get to gun ownersand have that conversation and not belittle them
because they made the choice to purchasea farm. But now that you purchase
that farm, let's make sure thatyou have the right instructions and understand how
to properly take care of that firearm. And I just want to reiterate we
(08:56):
are not telling people not to buya gun. We want people to handle
the gun properly and store the gunsafely. Now, is there such a
thing as a small gun safe thatyou can lock your your gun in and
then put it in your trunk,yes, and they're there what are called
(09:20):
gun vaults that can attach to thevehicle itself, so you can actually make
it part of the vehicle. Soit's very hard to steal that gun vault,
and then you can lock up thegun inside that gun vault. They
can attach either in the trunk orthey can be below the driver's seat of
your car. You can put themin there. In the state of North
(09:41):
Carolina, you're allowed to store thatfirearm in one of those gun vaults and
you don't have to have a securei mean a concealed carry permit to do
that. If you when if youwere already pulled over by a law enforcement
officer, you just need to tellthem that you have a gun in the
vehicle and is locked up a gunvault so that they understand that that is
(10:01):
present in the vehicle when they pullyou over. But we highly encourage people
to do that because it only takesa few seconds for a child to get
into your car, especially if youhave children yourself putting in the glove compartment
unlocked. We've had three kids inthe last year that have gotten guns under
the age of eight. Three kidsin the state North Carolina in the last
(10:22):
year that have gotten guns from glovecompartments in vehicles and shot themselves or shot
a sibling. And so please,if you're a parent, make sure that
that gun is not accessible to achild, if you don't believe your child
can find your gun. I alwaystell people, think about when you try
to hide your Christmas gifts at Christmasfrom your kids and make sure they don't
(10:43):
see them, how often do theyfind them? The same thing happens with
guns. Kids find them in yourhouse or in your vehicle, and they're
curious, and because of their they'renot as developed, their muscles aren't as
developed. Often they will point thatgun towards them to try to actually make
it work, which often ends withthe kid harming themselves in those cases.
(11:05):
And those are just tragic situations thatis completely preventable, completely preventable by putting
a lock on that gun or puttingthat gun in a gun safe. And
we want people to stay safe,and we don't want to hear these horrible
stories about children turning guns on themselves. And guns are heavy, and they
(11:26):
don't realize how heavy they are.And that's another reason that oh, look
at this and you pull the triggerbecause it was easy and you don't know
who you're going to hurt or kill. Yeah, And so what we've seen
in the state North Carolina is thatabout forty two percent of all households in
(11:48):
the state North Carolina now are gunowners, but fifty percent of those households
say that they do not lock upthose firearms. And so what we're trying
to do is change that fifty percent. We're trying to target that population and
say, hey, look, thisis a simple step you can take.
It's like putting your kid in achild's seat when you're when you're driving in
(12:09):
state of North Carolina, same thingis true. Just lock up that gun.
It only takes a few seconds.And the only you know, concerns
that we've heard from gun owners iswhy I want to have my gun accessible
to me in an emergency. Mostof the safts that are are produced today
can use biometrics, meaning that youcan use your thumb print or fingerprint and
(12:30):
open that safe in a matter ofseconds if that's your concern, and so,
just make sure that that gun isnot accessible to your child. Don't
give them access to the safe.If you want to teach your kids about
hunting safety, or going hunting withyour child. You need to do that
under a supervised environment. I'm aScout leader. I train kids all the
time on how to use firearms,but we spend the first half of that
(12:54):
class teaching them about safety. Youcan do that as a parent also,
and make sure that your child knowsthe right way to handle those fararms,
but you want to limit their accessto only when you're supervising them with that
firearm. Absolutely, and curiosity isjust huge among children. You don't have
to be a parent or an expertto know that. And if that gun
(13:18):
is not properly secured and they've gotbuddies coming over and it's hey, look
what my dad has or my momhas, and these kids can get into
serious trouble. And I hate togo here, but there are some kids
who are suicidal or thinking about it, and that gun is a wonderful opportunity
(13:39):
to just say I'm done and theydon't even think about it and it's over.
And that's yeah. You bring upYeah, you bring up an excellent
point, Linda. So of kidsthat commit suicide in the state North Carolina,
kids that try it with a fararm, ninety five percent of the time
they're successful. If they try tokill themselves with a farm is almost always
(14:03):
successful. If they try other meanslike overdosing or cutting or those other types
of ways to commit suicide, onlyfifty percent of the time are they successful.
So guns are extremely lethal in makingthat decision to commit suicide. It
also doesn't give you an opportunity torethink the situation, where maybe a drug
overdose or cutting would allow that person, once they've started it, to say,
(14:26):
wait a second, this is notreally what I want to do with
a gun. It's permanent, it'sover in most of those cases. And
so a lot of times parents theyknow what's going on with their kids.
I have two teenage kids myself,and I would love to tell you I
know everything that they're involved in andthat they you know that exactly where their
mental health status is at all times, But we don't know always. The
(14:50):
reality is that a lot of timeswhen kids are in depression or suicidal,
we may not know all the thingsthat are happening with that child. With
your own kid, And don't letthe purchase that you made of a farm,
which you purchase most likely to protectyour family, end up being the
thing that harms your family, andthe way that you can prevent that is
by simply secure in that farm inyour home. And this is not just
(15:13):
a child issue. I will tellyou that one of the deserving things that
we know about firearm dests in thestate of North Carolina is that suicides are
more prevalent than homicides when it comesto gun deaths. More suicides are committed
with farms than homicides, So peopletaking their own lives, and in our
state, the biggest population where thatoccurs is children and then veterans, veterans
(15:35):
returning for war. We owe itto our veterans to make sure that they
are safe and that we take careof them and they have the proper mental
health services that they need. Andso we encourage even adults, even if
you're living alone, to lock upthat gun in a safe, because what
the research has shown us is thatthe person has to go into the safe,
(15:56):
they have to find the ammunition,they have to take the gunlock off
a gun that gives them the timeto reconsider what may be an impulsive decision
to commit suicide. If we canpause that decision by a few minutes,
then we can often get that personto reconsider it, and we want to
make sure that people understand that thereare resources that are available in the same
North Carolina for people that are consideringsuicide. You can always call nine eight
(16:21):
eight to get a suicide help.There's always someone there that is there to
listen and talk to you. Soif that is something that's going on with
you personally, I encourage you tocall nine eight eight and get help that
you need to rethink that decision.We want you to be here and so
please take that step if you're consideringthat in your own life. We do
(16:44):
want you to be safe. Andyou made a very valid point a moment
ago about pills and cutting and sometimesyou think, well, I'm just gonna
cut myself, and then they makea cut and it's like, well that
freaking hurts, you know, andthat right pauses them enough to step away
from it, and it makes themthink. But if they don't have an
(17:07):
opportunity to think, if this gunis just lying around and you are having
as a child, the worst dayof your life, and life isn't worth
living, you don't think about it. You have no pause, and unless
the phone rings or the adult comeshome, or you're interrupted somehow, beforehand.
(17:29):
It's a tragedy. Absolutely, absolutely, you know, teenagers are impulsive
by nature. The data is veryclear now, We've got lots of good
brain science that's clear on what howyoung people think. And what we know
now is that impulsivity is the highestit ever is in your life when you're
fifteen sixteen years old, meaning thatimpulsivity means basically, you don't think about
(17:56):
a behavior before you do it.You just do it. And what we
want to do is give that kidan opportunity to pause and think about the
behavior before it happens. And that'swhat by putting a gunlock and putting a
gun in a gun safe, yougive the pause that is necessary often for
that kid to actually think about therepercussions of what they're about to do.
(18:18):
And so that's why we encourage peopleto take this step. And so you
know, there's a lot of resourceson our website which is incsafe dot org
that's in C S A f Edot org. People can go on the
website and get all kinds of information. If you're a parent that's sending a
child over to a sleepover, forexample, at a at another kid's house,
(18:41):
how do you have the conversation withthat parent about do you have a
gun in your house? Is thatgun locked up? That's a conversation that
you should be having if you're sendingyour child over to another person's house,
because if that gun's available to otherpeople during that sleepover, then that may
be a tragic situation that could couldoccur. But you don't want to alienate
those other parents. You don't wantthem to feel bad about that purchase maybe
(19:03):
of having a firearm. If you'recomfortable with them going to that house with
a firearm in the house as longas that firearm is locked up in a
safe. So how do you havethat conversation. We've got resources on our
website that walk a parent through howto have that conversation in a way that's
not gonna end the friendship that youhave with that other parent. And so
we've got great resources there for forfor parents. We've got great resources available
(19:29):
for pediatricians. We were re encouragingdoctors across the state in North Carolina to
have this conversation on well checks,and so we've got the questions to ask
on the website if you want toif you need a gunlock and don't have
a gunlock for your gun. Wehave gunlocks that are available across the state.
In Old Carolina, we've sent gunlocksto every local health department, so
(19:51):
you can go to your local healthdepartment and pick up a gunlock. You
can go to your sheriff's department officein your in your county, or you
can go to a local police department. Most local police departments we've sent gunlocks
to also, And if you can'tfind one any of those locations and still
don't don't have a gunlock, wecan you can email us on the website.
There's an email link there that youcan send us an email that says
(20:15):
that you need a gunlock, andwe'll send one to you. So there's
no excuse not having it. Absolutely, absolutely, We've already given out fifty
thousand gunlocks. We've got sixty thousandmore that we just ordered in that we're
going to send across the state.In North Carolina, two people, if
the reason that you're saying that youcan't have a gunlock on your gun is
because you can't afford it, we'vetaken that barrier away. There's there's no
(20:37):
reason that you can't take the simplestep of locking up that gun. Now
in your home, because we're goingto provide you with the resource to do
that with and that is such ablessing. Now, with a gunlock,
I don't know anything about them,So I'm going to ask for those of
us who don't have a clue.Is it something that works with a key
(20:59):
or is it with a thumbprint?Do you set it up? I don't
know, So let's let's educate therest of us who don't know. Absolutely.
So, there's several different types ofgunlocks. There's what's a cable lock.
That's the kind that we're providing topeople across the Stave in North Carolina.
A cable lock basically goes through thefiring mechanism out through the bottom of
(21:21):
the gun. If if it's ahandgun and it has a magazine, it
would go through the magazine chamber upthrough the firing chamber of the gun.
So it's it can't be used withthat gunlock in it because you can't reload
the gun and you can't have thefiring mechanism can't go off with the cable
lock in the gun. That's typicallya key lock. You can get ones
(21:42):
that are coded also that have adigital you know, a term combination on
it, so you can get inboth formats. We use a key lock,
and so we tell parents, ifyou're going to use a cable lock
with a key lock, make surethat you take that key with you,
you put it on your key chain, or or you keep it in a
(22:03):
location where your kids are not goingto have access to that key. There
are also what are called trigger locks, which is just a lot that goes
over the trigger itself that stops thegun from being able to be fired because
it locks the trigger forward. Thosecan be combination locks or key locks also,
and so you can get either formatthat you're that you want to use.
(22:25):
There are also obviously safes. They'rethe safes that are out there are
obviously combination you have combination saves,and you have the biometric safe or key
saves. And the biometric safes arethe fastest ones to use. They use
a fun print or a fingerprint toopen up that that safe. You can
also use just like you can useon your smart home devices. Now you
(22:48):
can use your voice as the combinationand so that that's another way to use
those new biometric safes that have comeout. Of course, there's the combination
locks. And also the key locks. On our website, we actually have
a video where the State Highway Patrolactually demonstrates how to use each of those
types of locks. And so ifyou don't, if you're unfamiliar with how
(23:10):
to actually put the lock on thefirearm itself, we have great training videos
that are free on our website thatyou can go to and see those.
So that's on NCSAF dot org.Also, when we if you get one
of our locks, our cable locks, we have a QR code on the
cable lock postcard that comes with itthat gives you a link to that video.
(23:32):
So when you if you request oneof our locks, you'll get that
QR code on the postcard that comeswith the lock that will take you straight
to that video that shows you aState Highway Patrol when demonstrating how to use
that lock itself on both your handgunsor your long guns. You can use
on either one of those devices tolock up that firearm. That's wonderful.
(23:53):
There is no excuse not to getthis gun lock. You're providing it for
free and you're explaining how to useit. I can't imagine somebody going,
ah, no, I don't needit. Yes, you do. Even
if you don't have children in yourhousehold. If you have family that comes
(24:14):
to your household with small children,you're not watching them every minute of every
day. And as you said earlier, kids are very curious. Absolutely absolutely
so if you're a grandparent or youraunt and uncle, if you ever have
kids that come into your household,then this is a necessary step that you
(24:34):
need to take. You're responsible forthat by law. If that kid gets
access to that firearm and harm somebodywith that gun, you are responsible.
And so we want to make surethat people understand that that you are responsible
for that child getting access to thatfirearm if they come into your home,
and the best step to take isjust go ahead and lock it up.
(24:55):
And that way, if you haveunexpected guests that come over, that gun
is already locked up and out ofthe way and you don't have to worry
about Oh man, I need toremember that at the last minute when a
child comes over into your house.And so we really encourage you to do
that. The other thing that Iwould say is that by putting your guns
in a gunlock, if someone wereto break into your home, it makes
it much more difficult for them toget access to those firearms and use those
(25:21):
firearms to harm somebody in your community. I think that all of us would
be greatly concerned if we find outthat a gun is stolen from our household
and that that gun is later usedto harm somebody in our community. And
so this is a simple step thatyou can take to make sure that that
gun is not used in a criminalact down the road. And that is
(25:41):
great advice because it seems like almostdaily we're hearing of guns being stolen,
either from people's houses or people's cars, or heaven forbid, they're ramming vehicles
into gun stores and looting guns.We've got to do something, yeah,
(26:03):
you know. The the increase accessto firearms is what we're seeing across the
state and across the country. Gundests are up. The number of gun
dests in our states has greatly increased, but it has across the country also,
And so this is really an issuewhere I think that we can all
come together. This doesn't have tobe a partisan issue or political issue.
(26:25):
It should just be a safety issue. We want our communities to be safe,
and the best way to do thatis to limit access to those farms
to people that shouldn't have them,and people that shouldn't have them are kids,
felons that are not allowed to haveguns anymore, people that had domestic
orders against them where they've domestically abusedsomebody in there in their own home.
We want to make sure that thosepeople don't have access to the farms because
(26:48):
they've shown a prevalence in the pastof harming people with those guns, and
it's our responsibility to make sure thoseguns don't get in their hands. Exactly,
and in a fit of temper.This may not have been your usual
m O, but you could justlose your mind and reach for your gun,
and you've got a tragedy. Andwe want to we want to avert
(27:11):
that. Absolutely all this information thatwe've talked about this morning, that you've
given us such clarity about is onyour website. That's correct. So our
web yep, our website is incsafedot org. And so you can go
(27:32):
on that website that's in c likethe state of North Carolina n C SAVEE
s a f E dot org andyou can go on and get all kinds
of information if you're interested in havinga community event in your area at a
PTA meeting to raise awareness about thisissue. We've got the information on how
to have that community event at yourlocal school or at your church or your
(27:52):
rotary club, and it gives youexactly how to have the conversation in a
way that comes across that's not youknow, making fun of someone because of
the decision that they made to buya farm, but it's asking them to
make the right decision about how toresponsibly own that farm. Right. We're
not being judgmental here. We justwant people to be safe. I know
(28:14):
some hoa's that would probably be interestedin having this program as well, simply
for the safety of your neighbors andyour friends and your family. So absolutely
so. We're encouraging any any communitygroups that want to get involved to get
involved. It's really easy to doif you go on the website. You
can also join our social media campaignsthat are out there and just repost the
(28:37):
materials that we're putting out there,and that helps get the message across to
your neighbors and your friends that youthink this is an important issue that fararms
need to be securely stored in yourin your homes. We're doing public service
announcements, we're doing billboards, we'redoing gas advertisements. So we're trying to
get the message out there. Butone of the things that we know about
(28:59):
getting a message of like this acrossis that it really needs to come from
a trusted messenger. And you canbe that person. If you're a gun
owner and you think responsible gun ownershipis important, then help us spread this
message. This is a message thatI think everybody in your community needs to
hear, and we need to reducethat fifty percent of households that are currently
(29:21):
not storing those firearms appropriately. Weneed to change that number if we're going
to change the number of people dyingby gun desk right now in our state.
And this is a great way tostart. Is you've got to communicate.
You've got to have this conversation,and you can't be afraid to have
this conversation. And it's wonderful thatyou've got tips on your site on how
(29:42):
to do it without upsetting people,because that doesn't achieve anything. Absolutely absolutely,
and I think if you talk toany law enforcement officer in your community,
or if you talk to anybody that'sinvolved in public safety, they're going
to tell you this is a hugeissue. Gun violence has become a huge
issue. You know what, yousee it on the news every night,
(30:03):
and I think most gun owners believethat we've got to figure out a way
to reduce the amount of gun violencethat's occurring, and safe storage is a
completely This passed the General Assembly inthe state of North Carolina completely bipartisan.
I think only one person voted againstthe bill. This is a bipartisan issue
that everybody can get behind and itcan also save lives. And so we
(30:26):
would greatly appreciate your participation in thecampaign and helping us spread the message.
Well, we want to do everythingwe can to spread the message and to
keep people safe. We were talkingearlier. When I was growing up,
kids would use their fists. Nowkids are reaching for guns, and we've
got to find a way to stopthat or at least stem the tide.
(30:51):
So absolutely, and you know I'veworked on school safety also, is one
of my roles in my job ishow do we create safer schools. Last
year, we had, you know, over three hundred guns come on school
campuses last year and stayed in NorthCarolina. Most of those guns came from
the kid's own home. That's aparent that did not properly secure their firearm
(31:11):
in their household. That's something that'scompletely preventable. Think about the terrorism that
it creates on a school campus.You know, like I said, I
have two kids in school myself,and when a lockdown occurs on that school
campus, it just it scares thekids, it scares the parents, it
scares the teachers, and education canoccur in that type of environment. We
(31:32):
can take the simple steps by lockingup those firearms to make sure that does
not happen in the future. Thankyou so very much for spending time with
us this morning on Carolina Focus.I think this conversation has caught a lot
of people's attention on how to keeptheir kids safe, how to keep their
guns safe. And as we said, we're not saying don't buy your gun,
(31:56):
we're saying secure it properly so thatwe don't have tragedies, especially with
children. And if you need moreinformation, as William Lassiter suggested, you
go to ncsafe dot org.
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