Man gives out gun locks to residents

AUGUSTA, GA.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Armed with hundreds of gun locks, Jack Logan stood post at a BP gas station near Augusta Mall for over an hour Monday, distributing them to people who want to secure their weapons.

Logan is the founder of Put Down the Guns Now Young People, a Greenville, South Carolina-based organization focused on securing guns and preventing them from getting in the hands of children or those who might use them against others.

His visit comes after a 4-yearold was recently killed in an accidental shooting at a Skinner Mill Road home. The father was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Logan said his organization isn’t trying to take guns away, and he respects the Second Amendment, but he wants to stress the importance of making sure guns are properly secured and out of the reach of children.

“If the gun is not on lock and not in your possession, your gun could get stolen, used on someone else or possibly used to hurt yourself,” Logan said.

The organization was founded in 2010, after a friend of Logan’s urged him to talk to kids about staying away from gun violence. That friend died in a car accident a few days later, but Logan never stopped his mission. He said the first event in November 2010 had about 80 attendees, and that number has kept growing.

Unfortunately, Logan said he’s also seen a higher number of incidents in which children have been accidentally shot, or young people have gotten their hands on guns illegally.

“It’s one incident after another,” he said. “We’d rather be doing educational stuff, and this is educational, but we spend a lot of our time visiting families that have lost a child.”

Logan’s organization travels across the country educating people on gun safety and has been to Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Georgia so far. He said he goes door to door talking to families and children about how to secure their weapons.

“We always have toy guns with us and we tell kids, ‘Make sure you ask an adult before you touch a gun. Make sure that it is a toy gun,’” Logan said. “Even with a toy gun, we tell them don’t point it at anyone because you just never know.”

Augusta resident Teresa Booker was one of several who picked up a gun lock. She said she needed a way to secure the weapons after guns, and their cases, were stolen from her home.

“My only way to make it safe for our grandkids is I have to put it in a shelf in our closet, so my husband made a shelf in the closet that’s higher than the average closet so when the kids come we have to put everything up there,” Booker said. “If I have the lock on it I don’t have to worry about it if I make sure everything is up.”

Logan said that over the course of seven years, his organization has given out 15,000 gun locks. By locking up weapons, Logan hopes more children are safe, and fewer stolen guns end up on the street.

“Today is a day to begin to stop letting loose guns be on the street,” he said.