Governor Proclaims North Carolina S.A.F.E. Week of Action 2024

NORTH CAROLINA S.A.F.E. WEEK OF ACTION

2024

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, responsible firearm owners who utilize safe storage devices and practices are critical to preventing firearm-related theft, violence, death, suicide, and injury; and

WHEREAS, 42 percent of North Carolinians keep a firearm in or around their home, and at least 24 percent of North Carolinians with loaded firearms at home keep them unlocked; and

WHEREAS, firearm violence is one of the most persistent and deadly issues facing North Carolina and the United States; an average of five North Carolinians die per day from a firearm injury, and rates of firearm violence and injury are increasing statewide and nationally; and

WHEREAS, firearm violence presents a statewide crisis of public safety and public and mental health; more than two-thirds of all violent deaths in 2021 were firearm-related; more than half of firearm-related deaths are suicides and American Indians, non-Hispanic white adults, and veterans have higher rates of firearm suicides than the general population; and

WHEREAS, firearm injuries have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for children; more than 1,500 juveniles statewide were charged with firearm-related offenses in North Carolina in 2023, and there were 278 instances of school-based offenses involving firearms during the same time period; and

WHEREAS, securing a firearm using a safe storage device can prevent theft, violent crime including school shootings, accidental shootings, suicide, and improper use of firearms by youth, thereby creating safer homes and communities; every North Carolinian who owns a firearm should be encouraged to practice safe storage and responsible firearm ownership; and

WHEREAS, communities that require safe storage report a 59 percent decrease in unintentional deaths due to firearms, and an estimated 32 percent of youth firearm suicide and unintentional death could be prevented through safe storage; and

WHEREAS, the NC S.A.F.E (Secure All Firearms Effectively) initiative has been established through partnership between the Governor's Office and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and further informed by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as a resource to educate North Carolinians on safe storage and responsible firearm ownership;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June 2 – 8, 2024, as “NORTH CAROLINA S.A.F.E. WEEK OF ACTION” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.

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Roy Cooper

Governor

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-ninth day of May in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.