Fast Facts About National SAFE Day
June 4 is National SAFE Day. You may not know what that is, but if you’re a gun owner — or you have children and know other parents who do — it’s a day that should be on your radar.
So, what is National SAFE Day? It’s a day when you’re encouraged to ask one simple question: “Are there any unsecured firearms in the homes where your children play?”
Here are some fast facts to get you up to speed on this important occasion, and what you can do to make sure your homes (and the homes in which your children play) are SAFE homes.
Fact 1: National SAFE Day is on the date 13-year-old Brooklynn Mae Mohler was accidentally shot and killed.
According to the Brooklynn Mae Mohler Foundation, run by her parents, their daughter was at her best friend’s house on June 4, 2013 when her friend accidentally killed her with an unsecured handgun.
The gun was left unlocked and loaded without a safety in a kitchen cabinet. That motivated Mohler’s parents to make sure that preventable firearm deaths like the one that befell their daughter were, indeed, prevented.
“My husband, unaware of what had happened, arrived at her friend’s house to pick her up, and found her in this life threatening condition,” Darchel Mohler wrote on the Foundation’s blog. “He arrived before the police/paramedics did, and had the unfortunate task of trying to save her life. She was shot by a single bullet directly through the middle of her lower spine from behind, and ultimately succumbed to her critical injuries.”
While the Mohlers are trying to get gun laws changed so that irresponsible gun owners can be charged when such things happen, National SAFE Day isn’t just about that. Instead, they want firearm owners to do four things, represented by each of the letters in the acronym.
Fact 2: S — Secure all firearms in the home.
If your firearms aren’t secured, you’re not being a responsible gun owner — especially if you have children in your house at any time.
If you need help with figuring out ways to secure your firearms in the home, trust me: your local gun store or range will be more than willing to help educate you about responsible gun ownership. Six Maritime Firearm Training has a number of ways they say you can make sure your guns don’t fall into the wrong hands.
Here’s a basic list of what they say every gun owner, at the bare minimum, ought to be doing:
- Firearms should be unloaded when not in use.
- When removing or returning a firearm to storage it should always be pointed in a safe direction away from any person.
- Maintain your firearm clean at all times.
- Store your firearms in a locked cabinet, gun vault, safe, or storage case in a location inaccessible to children.
- Always unload, clean, and properly store your firearm immediately after returning home from use.
- Store ammunition in a separate, locked location from the firearm.
- Use a gun locking device that renders a firearm inoperable when stored or not in use.
- Talk to your children and everyone in the home about firearms and explain the dangers of improper use.
- Attend a gun training course to fully understand how your firearm operates.
- Always practice safe gun handling.
If you’re in and around Gainesville, Florida, Six Maritime would be more than happy to educate you via a gun training course. If you’re not, again, there is someone near you who will point you in the right direction.
Fact 3: A — Ask the question about unsecured firearms in the homes your child visits.
Sadly, Brooklynn Mae Mohler’s parents could have done all that and their daughter still wouldn’t be alive. It isn’t just about making sure that your children are safe in your own home, especially because they could be in even more danger when they’re with their friends.
Look, we know it’s not exactly the most comfortable conversation that you’ll ever have. It’s a difficult thing to broach. However, until your child is an adult, you’re responsible for them — and that includes knowing about their friends. If their parents kept alcohol unsecured in their house, you’d want to know. Treat guns the exact same way. You’ll feel a lot better knowing exactly the kind of household your children are spending time at.
Fact 4: F — Frequently talk to your children about the dangers of firearms.
It’s not just talking to other parents, either. You can ask them, but you can never be 100 percent sure that you’re always sending your children into an environment in which they’ll be safe, particularly as they get older. That’s why you should sit down with them when they’re young and educate them about firearm safety.
They need to know that — as a child or an adult — practicing firearm safety is one of the most important things they can do. As a child, they should never be using a firearm in an unsupervised setting without an adult, no matter what. If they know anybody who does, they should do the same thing they ought to do if they attend a party where drugs or alcohol are present: leave and tell a parent.
As an adult, they need to practice firearm safety, too, if they wish to own a weapon. As they get older, teach them all the things that they’ll need to do in order to secure a firearm and store it safely. Your kids may have kids of their own one day, after all. You pass on all other sorts of wisdom to them. Pass on firearm safety, too.
Fact 5: E — Educate and Empower others to be SAFE.
And being SAFE isn’t just about you. It’s about an entire community.
Perhaps your child will never be in danger of being the victim of a preventable firearms death. In fact, the odds are that they won’t be. However, if you share SAFE, maybe the life you save could be your best friend’s child. Perhaps it’s their friend — or perhaps it’s someone you’ll never meet. Perhaps you’ll never know it. In fact, you probably never will. But that doesn’t mean that you didn’t save a life.
June 4 is the third anniversary of National SAFE Day and the fifth year that the Mohler family will be without Brooklynn Mae. Perhaps most tragically, she would be an adult this year. To commemorate her life, taken far too soon, make sure to be SAFE this June 4 — and pass it along.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
