Indy giving away free gun locks after spike in accidental shootings: 'Lives are at stake'
Spurred by the surge of accidental shootings this year, the city is distributing hundreds of free gun locks, with officials imploring firearm owners to secure their weapons.
Indianapolis Public Library branches are offering gun locks during regular hours while supplies last.
Officials said no questions will be asked of residents requesting locks, and each person can get up to two locks.
Mayor Joe Hogsett said gun locks are a simple but effective way to reduce the number of unintentional shootings, which have spiked in Indianapolis in the past year. At this time last year, the city had recorded 25 accidental, non-fatal shootings. This year, the city has seen more than three times that many.
Many times, the city’s youngest residents have paid the price.
One quarter of accidental, non-fatal shootings in Indianapolis this year have involved juveniles, according to police. In many cases, the child got ahold of an unsecured gun in a home and fired.
Police are reiterating their call to gun owners to unload their weapons, keep them locked, and store firearms and ammunition in different locations.
“I ask all gun owners to safely store their guns and keep them out of the hands of children. Their lives are at stake,” Indianapolis Police Chief Randal Taylor said.
On June 9, an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the 4000 block of Breton Street. Hours later, an 11-year-old girl was taken to a hospital after she was shot unintentionally in the 4100 block of Post Road.
Hakiem Scott, 5, died in May from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, resulting in a neglect charge against the boy’s father. In April, 6-year-old Billy Ray Mack II got ahold of his family’s gun and fatally shot himself.
An Indianapolis-area child was thrown into the national spotlight in January after he was captured on TV waving a chrome handgun at a Beech Grove apartment complex. Prosecutors charged the boy’s father with neglect.
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