LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Quinones "Q" Corniel helped Dorothy Jackson figure out how to use the free cable lock she grabbed for the gun she keeps at home.
"It won't be able to strike a round, if a round got in there," he said, talking about how the lock secures a handgun's slide.
It's one of thousands of locks being passed out in Louisville through the Project ChildSafe program.
"In case I have any nieces or nephews come over," Jackson said while leaving with the lock. "And just because it's in a safe place doesn't mean that it's safe. It needs to be locked up and have a lock on it."
The Goodwill Opportunity Campus hosted the giveaway, supported by the gun safety group Whitney Strong.
"We're taking the education to the communities where it's needed most," Corniel said. "I grew up not more than 10 blocks from here. Educating people and giving the resources to them does save lives.
The death of Aubree Goss on Nov. 21 could have been prevented with the locks Corniel prescribes.
"She was that precious three-year-old child growing up in the Fern Creek neighborhood," Mayor Craig Greenberg said. "And one morning, last month, she found an unsecured handgun that had been left underneath a couch."
Cable locks work by looping around the gun's chamber after it's unloaded. LMPD encourages using the locks to discourage gun theft as well.
"Secure storage of firearms is critical to public safety," Deputy Chief Emily McKinley said.
LMPD still has about 6,000 locks they can give out at community events or their division headquarters.
"We're certainly prepared to provide more," Joe Bartozzi, chairman of the project, said. "This is probably the biggest group of supporters we've ever had for a community launch."
It could just be the free gift that saves a life.
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