Diboll police receive 500 gun locks to hand out to community for free

DIBOLL, Texas (KTRE) - Each year in the U.S. 1,300 children die from accidental gun shots and many more are seriously injured according to the Children’s Hospital. Accidental gun violence ranks fourth leading cause in the nation of death for children.

“You’ve seen tragic stories all around the country of children finding loaded fire arms around the house, or even unloaded fire arms and ammunition get them together,” Michael Skillern, Diboll Police Chief said. “The end result is too often tragic.”

Skillern has been giving out gun locks since he took the position and found a box full of them. The program was such a success he got 500 locks from Project Safechild to keep it going to help people store the guns safely.

He says locking the guns is the safest way to have them at home, especially if a child lives there no matter their education level on handling guns.

And hiding them is no substitute.

“If you remember back when you were a child and you had a little time alone and were digging through drawers, going through cabinets, looking on the high shelves,” Skillern said. “As well as we try to hide our stuff kids find it.”

A study by the Children’s Hospital says that 75 percent of children at home with guns know where they are stored.

Even a three year old is strong enough to pull a trigger, making the free gun locks life saving.

“Children like to emulate their parents,” Skillern said. “So they may see where it’s stored get it later and not know what they’re doing. And if it’s locked it’s going to prevent it from firing.”

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