State planning to give away gun locks

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Officials on both sides of the gun debate are backing a program being worked out by state officials that would involve giving away as many as 100,000 gun locks. <br><br>Representatives

Friday, April 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Officials on both sides of the gun debate are backing a program being worked out by state officials that would involve giving away as many as 100,000 gun locks.

Representatives of Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin's office met last week with members of law enforcement, representatives from the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups as well as Oklahomans for Gun Safety and the Safe Kids Coalition to discuss the gun lock program.

The locks will be donated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun and hunting industry trade group. The foundation's Project Home Safe has distributed free gun safety kits across the country.

The Tulsa World reported the story in today's editions.

"We're attempting to do this on such a broad scale that no one should have an excuse for not having one of these locks," said Richard Tate, Fallin's chief of staff.

Tate said the shooting sports foundation has agreed to give the state an unlimited supply of locks.

Details of the giveaway are being worked out, although plans call for the cable-style gun locks to be requested by communit ygroups and distributed through police departments. Unlike trigger locks, the cable gun locks can be threaded through a gun's firing mechanism and some in law enforcement say they are safer.

Bonnie Geld, a member of Oklahomans for Gun Safety, attended last week's meeting to discuss the state's gun lock program. She said representatives from the NRA and other pro-gun groups attended and supported the idea.

"Everybody seems to agree that education and safety are paramount," she said. "It's very encouraging that people in Oklahoma from the NRA to people like the Safe Kids Coalition are all in agreement that this is what's important, gun safety."

Other law enforcement agencies, including the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office and the Sapulpa Police Department, plan their own giveaways.

Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz's office will give away 2,000 of the locks supplied through Project Home Safe. He said the cable locks are preferable to trigger locks because they cannot be used on a loaded firearm.

"We want to start educating people that if they have a gun, how to keep it safe, especially if they have kids in the house," Glanz said.