A new advertising campaign is starting this week reminding households with firearms, that when they aren’t being used, firearms are safest in a safe.

Te Tari Pūreke – Firearms Safety Authority says it is launching the campaign to be a catalyst for positive conversations within firearms households about how they are securing their firearms and ammunition every day.

“It’s a new sort of campaign for us because we are normally talking to the firearms community about how to be safe when they are out shooting or hunting,” says Partnerships Director, Mike McIlrath.

“But the reality for many firearms users, that most of the time their firearms are not in use. So this campaign is just a friendly reminder to households that when not being used, firearms must continue to be locked in your secure storage.

“In safe hands, firearms are an important tool. But when firearms get into the hands of people who might misuse or make a mistake with them, we know they can cause great harm.

Our campaign is responding to that. We want to make it harder for burglars and thieves to get a hold of them, but also safe from curious young hands or anyone else that shouldn’t have access to them. There’s lots of reasons why we’re saying firearms are safest in the safe.

Mike says in the last eleven years 7808 firearms have been reported stolen, ending up in the wrong hands. Many of these could have been prevented had these firearms been correctly stored in a locked safe.  The Firearms Safety Authority has also analysed burglary data and found that around a quarter of the firearms taken, were from safes where the thief used the key to gain entry.

Mike McIlraith says data analysis has given some really useful insights that has helped the Authority develop the advice it is giving, but he says it can all be boiled down to these three simple messages:

• Firearms locked away
• Ammunition secure
• Keys separate and secure.  

“If people are doing these things, it will help keep firearms in safe hands.”