***Keep your guns locked up unloaded & separate from the ammunition***
***Ensure your children & teens cannot access the keys or combinations to the locks, lock boxes or gun safes***
***do not keep your unlocked & loaded guns in your carS***
The Campaign to #KeepKidsSafe
#SafeStorageSavesLives
The Campaign to Keep Kids Safe (CKKS) was established by the Newtown Action Alliance Foundation and the Ethan Miller Song Foundation as an educational program for parents, educators & healthcare professionals to reduce unintentional shootings among children and childhood gun suicides and homicides in America; to provide gun safes to gun owners; & promote community gun buyback opportunities. CKKS joins The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to advise that the safest home for a child is one without guns. The research shows that the most effective way to prevent unintentional gun injuries, suicide and homicide to children and adolescents, is the absence of guns from homes and communities.
Click HERE to download the Campaign to Keep Kids Safe brochure.
Ethan Song’s Story
On January 31, 2018, Kristin and Mike Song's beautiful boy, Ethan, walked out of his home and towards his death in Guilford, Connecticut. He walked to his neighbor’s house to visit his best friend. Their neighbor's father had three unsecured guns and ammunition in a shoebox. The boys started handling the guns and Ethan was shot in the head. He had zero chance of survival. That morning he had gotten his braces off, another milestone. He turned 15 years old on January 19, 2018 - he had his whole life ahead of him.
More than a third of all unintentional shootings of children take place in the homes of their friends, neighbors, or relatives. Please always ask your friends and family to lock up their guns & ammunition in their homes when your children are visiting.
STATISTICS
Firearm injury is the leading cause of death for children & young adults (ages 0-19) in the United States.
Each day in america, five children are killed by guns and another 17 are shot and injured.
Eight CHILDREN a day ARE injured or killed by unsecured guns.
Children who live in a home with a gun are at 2X the risk of homicide and 3X the risk of suicide.
According to the U.S. Secret Service, 76% of school shooters acquired their guns from the home of a parent or another close relative.
An estimated 5,400,000 minors in the United States live in homes with at least one unsecured firearm.
In 2015, one in three U.S. households with children had firearms with nearly 14,000 children & teens treated for nonfatal firearm injuries; & 2,800 died by gunfire. Of these deaths, 782 could be attributed to the presence of unlocked guns.
According to a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics, 6% to 32% of youth firearm deaths (by suicide & unintentional firearm injury) could be prevented if all household firearms are stored locked.
The presence of unsecured firearms in the home increases the risk of unintentional and intentional shootings. Over 75% of firearms used in youth suicide attempts and unintentional firearm injuries were stored in the residence of the victim, a relative, or a friend.
73% of children under the age of 10 living in homes with firearms reported knowing the location of their parents’ firearms. 36% of those children reported handling their parents’ unsecured firearms.
GUN SAFES
Technology has advanced and electronic or biometric gun safes are readily available, safe and easy to use. Please contact us at info@newtownaction.org to inquire about a free gun safe.
GUN BUYBACKS
Gun-free homes are the safest homes for children and teens. Please contact your local police department to encourage them to hold a community gun buyback day so that gun owners can safely remove their guns from their homes.
1st Annual Connecticut Statewide #KeepKidsSafe Gun Buyback & Gun Safe Giveaway Day
