If You Have a Gun in Your Home...

Many kids are raised with guns in the home, particularly if hunting is a part of family recreation. If you keep a gun in the home, it’s important to teach your kids to act in a safe and responsible way around it.

To ensure the safest environment for your family:

• Take the ammunition out of the gun.
• Lock the gun and keep it out of reach of kids. Hiding the gun is not enough.
• Lock the ammunition and store it apart from the gun.
• Store the keys for the gun and the ammunition in a different area from where you store household keys. Keep the keys out of reach of children.
• Lock up gun-cleaning supplies, which are often poisonous.
• When handling or cleaning a gun, adults should never leave the gun unattended.

If you own a gun or have found one in your home and want to dispose of it, call your local police station. Do not dial 911 or an emergency line. Laws differ between states, but generally, the firearm will be checked to ensure it was not part of a criminal investigation and then it will be destroyed.

Community “buy-back” or “amnesty” days are another disposal option. These programs allow people to bring unwanted guns to a designated place where they will be made unusable. To find out if your community hosts these programs, contact your local police department — but don’t wait until such a program becomes available to dispose of an unwanted firearm.