cuchulainn
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from the Willimantic Chronicle
http://www.thechronicle.com/story_disp.htm?action=Search&story_id=nov11-04401&category=Local+News
http://www.thechronicle.com/story_disp.htm?action=Search&story_id=nov11-04401&category=Local+News
Police try to get lock on gun safety
Christina Hall - Chronicle Staff Writer
They’re safe, easy and free.
That’s how Willimantic Police Chief Lisa Maruzo-Bolduc described the benefits of using gun locks, which the city department, along with 90 other Connecticut departments, are distributing.
With more than 400 locks at the station, Maruzo-Bolduc hopes to distribute all of them. She wants to prevent a tragedy. “My hope is that every weapon has a lock on it,†Maruzo-Bolduc said.
That appears to be a tall order, with nearly 5,000 new gun permits issued the first nine months of this year, according to state police records. A total of more than 700,000 firearm permits are on file with the state.
In the second year of gun lock distribution, Project ChildSafe has distributed 165,000 to departments and state police. Last year, 50,000 were distributed.
Project ChildSafe is the nation’s largest firearm safety education and gun lock distribution program.
The organization is funded by a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice and managed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), based in Newtown.
Locally, the Coventry Police Department, the Mansfield resident state trooper and state police barracks in Tolland and Danielson also have locks to distribute.
With more than 28,000 gun deaths nationally in 2000 according to the National Center for Health Statistics, Maruzo-Bolduc said it’s just common sense to use a gun lock.
“People always make sure their homes are secure, but they forget to secure their guns,†she said, as she demonstrated the mechanism.
The steel cable slides through the barrel of an unloaded gun and then is locked, similar to a bicycle lock.
The locks work on all handguns and most rifles and shotguns.
Maruzo-Bolduc said, although parents may educate their children on gun safety, “you don’t know what their friends know.â€
She also pointed to the many “look alike†toy guns that may confuse a child. “You never know if the weapons are real or not,†she said.
Although there haven’t been a recent incidents of children using guns in Willimantic, Maruzo-Bolduc said there have been several instances when police responded to situations and found weapons unsecured with youngsters around.
“We’ve seen the potential for tragedy,†she said.
In eastern Connecticut, there has been incidents where children paid for their curiosity with their life.
In 1999, a Montville 7-year-old was shot and killed by his 9-year-old brother after apparently playing with their grandfather’s gun, hidden under the bed.
For more information on gun locks, visit the Project ChildSafe Web site at www.projectchildsafe.org.
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