Salt Lake County law enforcement agencies, elected officials, school districts and other concerned groups took aim Friday at the deadly combination of children and firearms.
At a press conference at the County Government Center, Commissioner Brent Overson announced the start of a comprehensive new gun-safety education program called "Gun-Wise."The program will reach children from kindergarten through high school with messages tailored to their ages and needs.
Through the use of a puppet show accompanied by a video that has been produced by KSL-TV, elementary school students will be taught not to touch or play with guns and to report to an adult any weapons they find.
A program that "deglamorizes" gunshot wounds will be presented at the junior high and high school level. It features a one-hour presentation developed by an emergency room nurse.
Parents have also been included in the GunWise effort, Overson said, explaining that brochures will be distributed to adults at local businesses and libraries.
As a reminder for new gun owners, GunWise has developed a tag that informs gun purchasers of the dangers to children and warns them to unload and lock up their weapons.
The organization also intends to buy gun locks and encourage others to contribute locks for free distribution to gun owners.
And GunWise will use a grim poster with the photographs of some of the children in Utah who have been killed with guns during the past two years. There have been a lot of them: 41 in 1993.
"Hopefully, using local deaths as an example will help the public realize that this is not a problem somewhere else," the GunWise organization said in a statement released at the press conference. "These are our children who are being killed."
Overson said a GunWise committee has been organized to guide the gun-safety effort. It includes representatives from all of the law enforcement agencies in the county, the four school districts, Primary Children's Hospital, emergency rooms, fire departments, Wildlife Resources and the City-County Health Department.
Anyone wishing to participate in the GunWise effort was invited to contact the group at 944-6605.