Kane Health Dept. offers free gun locks to owners, retailers

KANE COUNTY – The Kane County Health Department is offering free gun locks to households that have firearms and to gun retailers to promote safe firearm storage, prevent unintentional injury and reduce suicide risk, according to a news release.

“We are making gun locks readily available to help prevent tragedies like accidental shootings, gun violence, gun thefts and suicide,” Health Department Executive Director Michael Isaacson said in the release. “Having an unsecured gun increases the chances of tragedy.”

Gun owners can pick up the gun locks from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday in the reception area of the Kane County Health Department at 1240 N. Highland Ave., Aurora

Health Department officials will not request any information from anyone picking up gun locks, according to the release.

The gun locks are offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for distribution through the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Gun retailers may obtain gun locks to make available at no charge to customers buying firearms. Gun retailers can request them from Kaitlin Soriano, violence prevention coordinator at the Kane County Health Department, at sorianokaitlin@kanecountyil.gov, according to the release.

“We want to provide Kane County gun retailers the opportunity to help their customers store their guns safely,” Soriano said in the release.

Once secured, the locks block trigger access to prevent anyone who doesn’t have the key from operating the weapon.

The universal locks include installation instructions for autoloading pistols, revolvers, autoloading and pump-action shotguns, bolt action rifles, modern sport rifles and single-action revolvers.

Between 2018 and 2022, there were 141 gunshot wound deaths in Kane County and of those, 81 were suicides, according to the release.

Kane County emergency room doctors treated 410 gunshot wound injuries in the same time frame, according to the release.

According to “A Year in Review: 2020 Gun Deaths in the U.S.” from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions,” firearm injury was the leading cause of death among children, teens and young adults under age 25.

In addition, every 2.5 days a child or teen was killed by an unintentional gun injury.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.

For more information about the Violence Prevention Program, visit kanehealth.com.