March 29, 2021
By Brad Fitzpatrick
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) Project ChildSafe is a program that has reduced violence. In fact, Project ChildSafe provides firearms security kits and educational materials on safe gun handling free of charge. The Outdoor Sportsman Group (OSG) has stepped up to support this mission.
NSSF Project ChildSafe
Since its inception, Project ChildSafe has distributed more than 38 million firearms safety kits through local law enforcement agencies, which has helped keep millions of guns out of the hands of unauthorized users. These efforts have had a positive impact on American communities through the reduction of crime, violence, and suicide. Project ChildSafe has been hailed as an impactful initiative that offers practical and immediate solutions towards preventing deaths involving firearms and accidents.
Now OSG, the nation’s largest provider of digital, video, and print material related to hunting, firearms, and the outdoors is contributing to this effort. OSG COO Mike Carney presented a check for more than $102,000 to Joe Bartozzi, NSSF CEO, for Project ChildSafe.
This is not the first time that OSG and the NSSF have partnered. In January 2021, when the annual NSSF SHOT Show was suspended due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, OSG produced and distributed the “SHOT Show New Product Premier,” a six-night video series that allowed vendors to share product news and introductions with millions of potential customers through OSG’s digital, print, and video media, as well as the downloadable My Outdoor TV (MOTV) app.
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“(Project ChildSafe) helps ensure the education and safety of children, families, and our communities by restricting access of firearms from unauthorized users,” Carney said. “That’s impactful, meaningful scale that actually does work to protect us and our communities and rarely gets reported on by the mainstream media because it doesn’t fit their narrative.”
These efforts by the NSSF are saving lives. Unintentional firearms fatalities dropped 22.6 percent between 2008 and 2018. There were 458 unintentional shootings in 2018, which is the lowest number ever recorded, and far fewer fatalities than were caused by smoke inhalation and fires (2,972), choking, (5,084) automobile accidents (39,404) and poisoning (62,399) that same year. The truth is that the odds of being seriously injured while hunting with a firearm are about half of that of being injured while bowling.
Still, there is work to be done. The NSSF’s and OSG’s combined efforts will help accomplish what restrictive gun-control legislation cannot: an immediate and measurable reduction of firearms used in acts of violence without infringing on the rights of law-abiding Americans.
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For more information about Project ChildSafe or any of the NSSF’s other resources visit their website at www.nssf.org. To learn more about OSG’s media platforms visit www.outdoorsg.com.
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