Community members can pick up a free firearm lockbox from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, July 25 at Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital. The event is sponsored by several community health, law enforcement, civic, and nonprofit groups. 

With 430 lockboxes available, they will be distributed first come, first served. The items are limited to one lock per person and two per household.  

Colorado law requires firearms to be securely stored when they are not in use to prevent unauthorized access. These lockboxes are 10-by-7-by-2 inches and provide secure storage for handguns at home, on a nightstand or in the car. They come with a heavy duty 1500-pound-rated steel cable that secures to any stationary object including a vehicle seat or piece of furniture.  

This drop-by event also is a chance for people to gather information about the safe storage of firearms and free locking devices for firearms from partner organizations.  

Firearms are the leading method of suicide in the Mountain West, said Grace Greathouse, Intermountain Health injury prevention and outreach coordinator. When used in a suicide attempt, firearm injuries usually result in death. 

“Given the frequency and fatality with which guns are used in suicides, injury prevention experts advise that no person in suicidal crisis should have access to a gun,” Greathouse said. Because suicidal crises usually arise in just minutes, putting space and time between a person who is struggling, and a firearm lock box, can save a life by allowing the crisis period to subside and the person to get help. 

Safe firearm storage is one of the simplest and most effective things we can do to prevent suicide, she said.  

The event will take place on the far west side of the Good Samaritan Hospital campus in the back of the Emergency Department parking lot, 200 Exempla Circle in Lafayette. Organizers request that no firearms be brought to the event.  

Partner organizations helping to distribute lockboxes and provide education include the City and County of Broomfield, Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Boulder County District Attorney’s office (Twentieth Judicial District), Adams and Broomfield County District Attorney’s office (Seventeenth Judicial District), Broomfield Police, Erie Police Department, Lafayette Police, Louisville Police, United Church of Christ of Longmont, and Intermountain Health.   

 To learn more about Firearm Safety, visit https://cdphe.colorado.gov/office-of-gun-violence-prevention.