The Department of Education and Office of Gun Violence Prevention have launched an initiative to educate parents on the importance of secure storage of firearms through school principals. Across the nation, school principals will serve as advocates for safer firearm storage to decrease gun violence in schools. On Jan. 25, the Biden-Harris administration hosted a School Principals’ Town Hall on Firearms Secure Storage at the White House to present the three new plans of action.
At the town hall, Deputy Director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention Greg Jackson, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden debriefed the nation on updates in the Biden administration’s gun violence prevention campaign. They also called on school principals to join federal efforts to promote safer firearm practices.
“The parents in your schools trust you. They look to you to steer their children to the bright futures ahead of them,” the first lady said. “You can show parents that they can be part of preventing the next shooting, the next suicide, the next accident.”
More than three-quarters of school shootings are committed using a gun from home, according to a 2019 report by the Department of Homeland Security. Multiple researchers have found that firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the U.S., and have been since 2020.
Latest White House Steps Focus on Educating Local Leaders, Gun Owners, Parents
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the U.S. Department of Education formulated this strategy for gun violence prevention under President Biden’s 2023 Executive Order, which declared a goal of pushing the nation towards universal background checks of firearms, increasing public awareness of gun violence prevention, and further investigating the loss or theft of guns in shipping processes.
The first step of this new action will begin with informing school principals. Every school principal in the U.S. will receive letters educating them on the importance of gun storage safety, including research about the effectiveness of safe gun storage for gun violence prevention. Each letter will disclose to principals their role in streamlining information about gun storage safety to parents.
“I encourage you to educate the whole school community about the importance of safe firearm storage. Let’s work together to save lives,” the letter from Education Secretary Cardona reads.
In each letter, school principals will be encouraged to work with local community leaders and organizations to further spread education on gun violence storage safety.
Secondly, the Department of Education will be forwarding principals new communications templates to send out to parents and other community members. These templates are updated with the latest data on firearm-related injuries and safe firearm storage.
“More than 4 million children live in a household with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm,” the customizable template reads. “Studies have found that households with both locked firearms and locked ammunition have significantly lower risks of self-inflicted firearm injuries and even lower risks of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens compared to households that did not safely store firearms.”
Lastly, the Department of Justice published a guide for gun owners on gun storage safety. The guide, titled “Safe Storage of Firearms: Unload it, Lock it, Store it” provides detailed options for firearm owners to store their guns. Gun safes, lock boxes, gun disassembly, and trigger locking are encouraged to keep unauthorized users from accessing these firearms—specifically those threatening schools.
“Everyone has a role to play in reducing firearm violence in our communities and preventing deaths and injuries from firearms,” Cardona said. “Building awareness about effective, safe storage strategies and devices can be a key complement to this work and can help our children and our communities thrive.”
