firearms safety

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Franklin Armory Wins Safety Award

February 2, 2022 by

I realize most people have never been nor will they ever get to the SHOT Show’s Industry Day at the Range. I have been fortunate enough to have attended multiple times and was supposed to be there this year. Thanks to weather-related travel delays, we did not arrive in Las Vegas until Tuesday evening so missed out on it.

Let me set the scene for you. You have hundreds of people wandering around a huge range that has over 50 shooting locations. At these shooting locations you have people of varying firearms experience shooting real firearms with real ammunition. Add on top of this a number of these people are also trying to film themselves or others while they are firing these firearms. It could be a recipe for disaster if you didn’t have excellent range safety officers and tight control by the various company representatives.

Thus, when I heard that Franklin Armory won the Action Target Industry Day Safety Award I was very impressed. Not only did they win the award but they did it while showcasing products – binary triggers – that work in a unique way. You can see some of how they work in the video below done by The Firearm Blog TV.

From the release by Industry Day announcing the win:

The winner of the Action Target Safety Award receives a $2,000 credit toward the 2023 Industry Day at the Range event. Franklin Armory has elected to donate the $2,000 to Project ChildSafe. Project ChildSafe is a National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) program committed to promoting firearm safety to communities across the United States.

“Action Target recognizes the importance of promoting firearms safety throughout our industry. As market leaders, we understand the importance of building the safest and most advanced shooting ranges possible. We are proud to be a part of this great event and honored to recognize and congratulate Franklin Armory for taking the appropriate steps at Industry Day to promote firearm safety.” says Mike Birch, President and CEO at Action Target.

Safety auditors judged shooting exhibitors during Industry Day, and the score was determined by range safety criteria such as providing hearing and eye protection, control of ammunition and safe handling of firearms on the firing line. Scoring also took into consideration the posting of rules, availability of first aid kits at the shooting stations and crowd management.

“We recognize that Industry Day at the Range is a fast-paced event, and like all firearms, our products require diligent adherence to the four rules of firearm safety,” said Jay Jacobson, Franklin Armory President. “Our team has consistently made safety not just a plan, but a process.  The fruit of that labor has been a safe and successful experience for all who attended.  We know all of our industry peers share this commitment, and it is with great honor that we receive this award.”

So congratulations to Franklin Armory and their whole team for showing everyone how to do it right.

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Kudos To Panteao Productions

January 12, 2015 by 1 Comment

I have to give kudos to Panteao Productions. They recently released a video entitled Kids and Guns with Tatiana Whitlock. It is, as the title should make obvious, a video for parents that reviews things like safety rules, safe storage, introducing your children to firearms, sources for further training, and how to set the proper example for your kids with regard to firearm handling. The video is not a tutorial on how to teach your kids how to shoot.

The video features Tatiana Whitlock who has done a number of instructional YouTube videos for the new NRA Women TV series. Ms. Whitlock is the owner and found of ID Target Systems which manufactures and sells a line of proprietary dimensional targets for both shoot house and square range training environments. She is also certified as a NRA Basic Pistol instructor, Range Safety Officer, and Refuse to be a Victim instructor.

So why am I giving Panteao kudos for selling a safety video? Because they have also made it available for free on YouTube for everyone to watch. Even the simplest videos cost money to produce. I sincerely doubt that they will sell enough of these DVDs to even break even with production costs.

For all the proclamations from Shannon Watts, Ladd Everitt, and rest of their ilk about “gun safety”, it is we in the gun culture and the gun rights movement who do the real work for the safe use of firearms. Unlike them, we do not engage in using the perverse pseudonym “safety” as cover for “control” and “confiscation”. Whether it is the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program or Ms. Whitlock in this Panteao Productions video, safety is, and should always be, our paramount concern.

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A Better Question To Ask

April 30, 2014 by 6 Comments

The Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence (sic) has started a campaign called “Asking Saves Kids”. They are encouraging parents to ask other parents if there is an unlocked firearm in their house. The Brady Campaign alleges that thousands of children are killed annually.

From their web text that they are suggesting supporters use:

In America, one out of three homes with children has a gun, many kept unlocked or loaded. Every year thousands of kids are killed and injured as a result.

When one examines the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report – Deaths: Final Data for 2010, which tracks mortality and the cause of it, we see that 62 children under the age of 15 died as a result of an accidental (negligent) discharge of a firearm. Thus, the Brady’s claim that “every year thousands of kids are killed” is an outright lie. See Table 10 on Page 40 for the confirmation of this.

As part of their campaign, the Brady Campaign has been releasing a series of YouTube videos and PSA videos. The one below is called “Conversations” and talks about awkward conversations. It tells parents to ask if there is an unlocked gun before letting their children go over to play.

I can suggest a better question to ask before letting little Jimmy go over to play with little Billy and Bobby.

Have your children been through the Eddie Eagle Program? If not, why not? Unlike anything put out by the so-called “gun safety” (sic) groups, it is a proven, award-winning program that has been shown to be effective in reducing accidental deaths of children with a firearm.

The bottom line is that locks can be defeated. Proper training like the Eddie Eagle program will help protect kids, locks or no locks.