In a surprising but welcome move, the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded a two-year, $2.4-million grant to provide gun-safety education messaging and free gun locks through the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Project ChildSafe program to communities nationwide.
While we applaud the federal government’s support of these efforts, we can’t help but wonder why they’re Johnny-come-latelies to gun safety. After all, the NRA has been training more Americans in gun safety than any other public or private group—more than a million Americans every year—and for far longer, too: since 1871.
What’s more, NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program has been in operation more than a decade longer than NSSF’s Project ChildSafe and reached more than 28 million kids with its comprehensive curriculum through schools nationwide. Kids love it, parents praise it, and it’s helped reduce accidental firearm fatalities to the lowest levels ever recorded. So where’s the NRA’s federal grant?
