To prevent the violent death of children in the future due to handguns and rifles, parents and owners of firearms are urged to observe and practice the following safety rules and recommendations:

1. Store all handguns and rifles with keyed trigger locks.
2. Store all handguns and rifles separate from ammo. Store guns and ammo under lock and key. Use metal tool boxes or speccially designed ammo boxes with a lock for storing ammo.
3. Secure rifles and handguns in a gun safe or vault or in hard shell cases designed for safe and secure storage.
4. Report immediately any lost or stolen firearms to police. Maintain duplicate record of all firearms including their make, model and serial numbers. Copies of these records should be kept separately from firearms so that they are not lost by theft and may be made available to police or insurance investigators.
5. Remove bolts and/or firing pens from bolt action type rifles and store bolts inside a separately locked box. This will prevent usage of bolt action rifles should they be stolen.
6. Do not allow children access to firearms, locks, keys or combinations used for firearm or ammo storage. Always use a double or triple lock scheme to secure firearms from children. For example, store all firearms with a keyed trigger lock inside a locked hard case that is placed inside a second gun vault or locked metal box. Then secure your home with keyed dead bolts on all outside doors.
7. When storing firearms inside the home secure them inside a vault or other specially designed cabinet that is heavy and bulky. This will make it difficult to move or steal firearms.
8. When keeping a loaded gun for personal or home protection, always keep it on your person. If you keep a shotgun in your home for home security, keep ammo on your person rather than in a loaded gun, especially when there are children in the home.
9. Develop and practice a plan of action for firearm usage and security in an emergency situation. Remember that in an emergency defense situation you will probably not have much time to respond. Therefore a loaded, holster handgun around your waist will make for a quicker response than running and getting a hidden gun.
10. The first thing you should do in response to an attempted home or school invasion is move to a secure area and call 911. Try to escape from whatever threatening situation exists by locking yourself in a room and waiting for police to arrive. Use handguns only in self defense if there is no opportunity for escape or your life is in immediate danger.
11. If you have children and firearms in your house, teach the children that firearms are deadly weapons only to be used by adults for self defense when your life is in danger.
12. Teach children love and respect for human life and never to point a gun at a person even if they think the gun is unloaded. Teach children to never touch or use guns in anger or when they are upset. Supervise and talk to your children. If you can't control your children you should not have a gun in the home.
13. If you have children and firearms in your home, teach the children to only use firearms when supervised by adults. Young children, under legal age, should not be allowed to have access to firearms except under the direct supervision of adults.
14. Parents may want to keep secret their firearms from particularly young or irresponsible children. But remember secrecy should not be your only form of security. Firearms not in use should always be locked and secured as described above!
15. Remember that in modern society children sometimes obtain drugs (alcohol, marijuana, LSD, cocaine and other illegal chemical substances) that alter rational behavior and result in irresponsible actions. Guns and drugs do not mix. Observing the above safety rules will help guard against the fatal mix of children and mind altering drugs. It is unwise and sometimes suicidal to keep any firearm in a home which has a substance abuser.
16. Finally, take advantage of any firearm safety and instruction courses taught in your community. Minors can learn how to safely use firearms but should never be given access to firearms without adult supervision.
17. Parents, teachers, school administrators and law enforcement agencies should all work together to develop programs to improve school security and teach students respect for life and how to love. This cooperation should also involve working to improve and strengthen laws related to school violence and juveniles who bring guns and other weapons to school.
18. The school shootings and bombings at Columbine H.S. in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999, make it clear that even high school students can get the materials and directions to make bombs and use them to kill students in school. Any home or school security plan should include keeping explosive material like gun powder under lock and key. Because bombs and incinerary devices can also be made out of gasoline, propane gas canisters or other flammable materials, parents and teachers should be aware of what their children are doing.
19. Use police and professional agencies to increase security. Schools may want to consider using surprise visits by local police agencies to search lockers for weapons, drugs and other dangerous materials. It is likely such searches, which may include usage of drug and bomb sniffing dogs, would discourage students from bringing weapons or other dangerous items to school.
20. Parents and teachers may want to monitor how children use computers at home and in school. Be aware that instructions for how to make bombs can be obtained via the internet or in widely published books such as The Anarchist's Cookbook, a version of which exists upon the internet. Even educational television programs have shown the components used to make pipe bombs or fertilizer bombs. Hence the knowledge of how to make bombs or incinerary devices is readially available. That is why parents, teachers and students must be aware of how students are using computers and what types of activities students engage in when not at school. A deadly combination is students in gangs which advocate hate, violence and abuse. As seen in the Columbin High School shootings these behaviors may esculate into attacks against the general school population and have tragic results when guns and bombs are involved!

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