Lock-Box giveaway promotes gun safety
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake Community Health Center volunteer Erin Wieldraayer looks after her sister's dog, an eight-week-old rambunctious Black Labrador named Mater, while her sister signs up to get a firearm lock box.
MOSES LAKE — It was quite a crowd that had lined up Saturday morning in the parking lot of Tri-State Outfitters.
And they just kept coming.
“We had a whole bunch of people this morning right when we opened up,” said Stephanie Melcher, marketing and communications manager for the Moses Lake Community Health Center.
“We’ve gone through half of our lockboxes,” Melcher added. “So I feel like we’re going to have a really good showing today.”
Moses Lake Community Health Center, along with Samaritan Health Care, Molina Health Care, Amerigroup, the Grant County Health District, and retailers Tri-State and Sportsman’s Warehouse all participated on Saturday to give away 700 small handgun lockboxes, as well as trigger guards and cable locks to promote gun safety and responsible gun ownership.
“In my home I have a bigger safe (for my firearms), but I have grandkids in and out of my house all the time,” said Tri-State employee Rob Stokes. “I have to be absolutely confident those kids cannot get a hold of a firearm, so all of my guns are locked up all the time.”
The lock box giveaway was brought to Moses Lake last year by Seattle Children’s Hospital, which partners with organizations and trains them to do the lockbox giveaway on their own. The giveaway last year, which was held solely at the Sportsman’s Warehouse on the north side of Moses Lake, was so successful, that local organizers this year asked Tri-State to participate as well.
And it was busy, with volunteers from both Moses Lake Community Health and Tri-State showing people how to use their new, heavy steel lockboxes.