Billionaire and failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg should be able to pony up the money for his own gun control agenda, but one of his initiatives was caught red-handed trying to pass off the firearm industry’s Project ChildSafe safety kits as their own.
John Richardson, a blogger and podcaster who writes about firearms tweeted a photo taken at a gun show in Asheville, N.C., of the Bloomberg-backed group Be Smart stapling their own cards to what are clearly Project ChildSafe-branded locks. Those locks are paid for by the firearm industry and distributed free to communities through partnerships with over 15,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and five U.S. territories. Over 40 million of these free kits with firearm locking devices have been distributed in the past two decades.
It’s more than ironic that a billionaire’s gun control group swiped the firearm industry’s locks so it appears that it is “doing something.” It is downright disingenuous.
Not Smart at All
Be Smart is an offshoot of Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. It bills itself as promoting “responsible gun ownership.” Except that’s not what Everytown or Moms Demand Action is about. Both groups consistently demand gun bans.
Bloomberg has pushed to restrict gun rights for law-abiding Americans to protect themselves at every opportunity while he himself pays for private security. The gun control groups he bankrolls, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, regurgitate lies and falsehoods about the firearm industry’s efforts to reduce criminal gun crimes and unintentional firearm injuries.
Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand, has even smeared the firearm industry as “extremists” who are only “focused on profitability” over everything, “including the safety of the American public.”
40 Million and Counting
Project ChildSafe is part of NSSF’s industry-led Real Solutions. Safer Communities. effort to reduce accidental and unintentional firearm injuries in the home. The 40 million locking devices Project ChildSafe has distributed are above and beyond the locks that are included with every firearm sold at retail. Totaled, that number tops 100 million. These collective efforts have led to the lowest numbers of unintended firearm injuries and deaths since data was first recorded in 1903.
Since January 2022, Project ChildSafe gun locks have been distributed in hundreds of communities nationwide, including Las Vegas, Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Albuquerque. In Columbia, S.C., Mayor Daniel Rickenmann expressed his gratitude to NSSF for bringing Project ChildSafe to his city.
“We want to provide members of the Columbia community with the resources and tools to take the right steps in properly securing firearms,” Mayor Daniel Rickenmann recently said. “These steps are essential in preventing tragedies, and we’re grateful for NSSF’s partnership and other local leaders for their efforts to make our community safer.”
If Everytown believes Project ChildSafe is a cynical distraction and not a worthwhile effort, they should speak to President Joe Biden. In 2013, then-Vice President Joe Biden held a White House meeting in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy. He spoke to then-NSSF CEO Steve Sanetti and referring to NSSF, said, “You guys are doing a lot of good things, including the gunlock thing. And this isn’t Joe Biden just blowing smoke. I mean it.”
Multipronged Effort
NSSF President Joe Bartozzi spoke at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year about the importance of secure firearm storage in the home. His message was simple – the messenger matters. “What we’re talking about here, from NSSF’s perspective, is a proactive approach to educating people. Many of these proposed laws would only come into effect after a tragedy has occurred.” Bartozzi continued. “It is more important to prevent a tragedy than to deal with the pieces afterwards.”
Project ChildSafe is about preventing tragedies, but it is just one of several industry-led initiatives under the Real Solutions. Safer Communities. umbrella to reduce criminal misuse of firearms and firearm accidents.
Reducing accidental firearm tragedies is a goal that everyone can agree on. The firearm industry does this while also ensuring the Constitutional rights of all law-abiding Americans to protect themselves are safeguarded. The industry’s efforts in this regard, including by handing out Project ChildSafe gun safety kits, have shown unquestionable success. That effort continues.
There’s a word for stealing free gun safety locks and handing them out as your own. It’s a lot worse than “cynical.”
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
my gun behaves properly . it doesn’t need cuffs. never has assaulted me yet..
You might want to change your mind after seeing this video.
https://youtu.be/3ZV9ZV5kHs0
Do you think that Bloomberg could have done this intentionally to provoke a lawsuit which would cost NSSF and firearm manufacturers money for lawyers? Also, Bloomberg’s propaganda networks could make the claim that pro rights organizations fight against safety. We all know that the media won’t ask any substantial questions in that case.
i doubt it because if he lost he would probably have to pay attorney fees and court costs. he has a lot of money, but….
this is what leftists/progs do. they have to lie because no one would vote for them or their agenda if they told the truth. they are pathologic liars.
i also do not believe anything the legacy media says unless corroborated by other sources, preferably not American. American media is as corrupt as the political class.
blumturd needs to find another hobby!
Blumturd needs to do his best RBG impression…..got my dancin’ shoes laced up and my bladder is full.
Would be interested to know how they obtained the locks. I taught firearms safety to new shooters for years and became a Project Childsafe ‘Ambassador’ to have literature to hand out in class. They would not however issue me locks to hand out to parents that wanted a firearm in the home, but worried about access by minors. They would only give those to Law Enforcement.
Never made sense to me.
Did you make a chain lock necklace ? lol
Nope, no locks for me. A friend had a trigger lock on his gun and couldn’t get it to unlock. He had to drill the lock to get it off and he said he’d never put one on his gun ever again.
Did he get it from Bloomberg?
I’m suspicious of Bloomberg’s intentions. Imagine if the locks have been tampered with by their people and either won’t open or won’t stay locked. NSSF would get the blame since the project childsafe name is on it.
I caution everyone who got a lock from the Bloomberg group to check for proper operation multiple times before trusting the lock. This is something you should do anyway.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?”
So Bloomsberg’s thieves lie, and liars steal? WOW! Whoda thunk it??
🙂
I always take as many free locks as I can. When they were giving them away free at police and sheriffs departments I would stop in and grab handfuls and I would take them home for legitimate uses or throw them away. I. WOULD. NEVER. PUT. ONE. ON. ONE. OF. MY. GUNS. I find them OFFENSIVE. But I will gladly run up the costs of any foolish commie aholes giving them away. Note: I have had loaded guns sitting on my desk in my office and at my bedside for more than thirty years and not one time have they… Read more »
You are a ahole.
Your willing to deny others because you don’t like it.
Your no better then the anti-gun people.
Just because you don’t have a use for or a like for something does not make it OK for you to interfere with it.