Defects Suspend Gun Lock Effort

.c The Associated Press

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A nationwide effort to distribute gun locks has been
suspended after police in two East Tennessee cities discovered many of them
could be easily opened.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for weapon and
ammunition makers, had distributed 400,000 cable locks nationwide through 650
law enforcement agencies. The foundation’s program, dubbed Project HomeSafe,
was launched last year.

A Knoxville police officer discovered one of the locks would spring open when
bounced in his hand. The officer alerted Police Chief Phil Keith, who ordered
a test of the 5,000 devices the department had planned to distribute. The
check found the trait was common.

Distribution to police departments has been postponed and the trade group is
recommending that local agencies stop handing them out until problems with
the locks is corrected.

“We thank the law enforcement authorities in Chattanooga and Knoxville for
making us aware of this situation, and we have begun to notify all of our
Project HomeSafe partners of this potential problem,” said Robert T. Delfay,
president and chief executive officer of the Newtown, Conn.-based foundation.

Bill Brassard, the project’s coordinator, said Tuesday that the locks are
manufactured overseas but he didn’t know by whom. Officials are checking to
see whether the flaw is common to all the locks, or whether the ones in
Tennessee were just a bad batch.

“That’s what we’re looking into,” he said. “We’ve sent a couple of trucks
to Knoxville and Chattanooga to pick them up. To be on the cautious side,
we’ve put the entire program on hold.”

Chattanooga and Knoxville police say they are concerned gun owners might have
a false sense of security about the locks.

Delfay said the foundation shares that concern and recommends all weapons be
stored in safes. He said the locks are intended to discourage unauthorized
access to a firearm, particularly by children, but “is not designed or
intended to withstand every possible effort to defeat or destroy it.”

Foundation officials said the failures reported by East Tennessee police are
the first they have received.

On the Net:

Project HomeSafe: http://www.projecthomesafe.org/