AUSTIN, Texas — As 2024 approaches, The Department of Public Safety (DPS) wants to remind everyone to keep their guns safely stored.
According to DPS, there were at least 2683 deaths in 2019 due to firearms, higher than the national rate. Public safety officials added that the number has increased every year since 2011.
”We want to keep people from putting them in locations that are accessible to children or other people who may be in the home,” said DPS Sergeant Deon Cockrell.
DPS mentioned that during the holidays guns tend to be a popular gift, but want to stress the importance of when it comes to having one inside of your home.
It’s a reminder Cockrell said the department has been working on through its Safe Gun Storage campaign, which was signed off on by Governor Greg Abbott in 2019.
“It’s such an important issue,” said Cockrell. “I think we'll continue this message as much as we can put it out to the public so that we can help prevent some of these unintentional injuries to children and people that access firearms that shouldn't have access to those firearms.”
To prevent access, Cockrell mentioned that there is a three-step check list people can follow:
- Store unloaded & secured by using a trigger lock, biometric lock, gun case, strong box, gun cabinet or gun safe.
- Store and lock ammunition safely
- Keep others from getting access to stored firearms 24/7. That includes family, friends, children, or other visitors.
Cockrell added that it’s also important to have conversations with friends, family, and visitors if there is a gun in someone’s home.
”Say your child goes to another person's home. Do those people have firearms? Have you had that discussion? That's also something you need to think about when your child visits another home or stays overnight. So having those discussions in your community with people you share time with is very important,” said Cockrell.
Cockrell said statistics show that more than half of children who were unintentionally killed was because a firearm was left unsecured.
”We want to keep people from putting them in locations that are accessible to children or other people who may be in the home,” said Cockrell.
Other tips the DPS sergeant wanted to add was it’s not just your home that needs to be secured, but also your vehicle.
“Not leaving the firearm in the vehicle… And how do most criminals get hold of those firearms, a lot of those are stolen from homes and vehicles,” said Cockrell.
There are several guns stores that offer different sorts of gun locks. DPS also occasionally holds events where they give out gun locks for free.
Because whether a person owns a gun or not, the goal is to keep everyone safe.
“We don't want them to not enjoy those firearms, we just want them to secure them safely for when they're ready to use them,” said Cockrell.