North Carolina leaders on Thursday gathered in Garner to announce a new gun safety initiative for students across the state.
The state Department of Public Safety (DPS) joined Wake County Public School System leaders at Garner Magnet High School to introduce the new NC S.A.F.E. for Schools program, which delivers safe gun storage resources to parents, students and schools across the state.
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NC S.A.F.E stands for "secure all firearms effectively." The gun safety campaign began two years ago but is now being expanded to schools.
The program serves parents and students in school districts statewide, largely by educating parents on gun locks and safe gun storage and fostering awareness and conversation.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Wake County superintendent Robert Taylor spoke at Thursday's event, along with leaders from the Garner Police Department, the Wake school board and the Department of Public Safety.
According to the Department of Public Safety, 87 guns were found on North Carolina school campuses last year. In 75% of those cases, students brought those guns from home.
"Those were preventable events," said William Lassiter, DPS deputy secretary for juvenile justice. "It was a gun that was not locked up; it was accessible to the child ... it only takes a few seconds to lock up your firearm."
According to the federal Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, 30% of North Carolina high school students estimated in 2021 that they could have a loaded gun in less than one hour without their parents knowing.
Lassiter said bringing guns on campus is a huge disruption to education.
"It terrorizes our teachers, it terrorizes our kids ... and it terrorizes [parents]," he said.
Earlier this week, bullets were found in the cafeteria of a Raleigh elementary school. So far in 2025, loaded guns were found at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School and Enloe High School.
Garner Police Deputy Chief Chris Adams also spoke Thursday, mentioning the 2022 Hedingham shooting in east Raleigh, when a 15-year-old was accused of shooting and killing five people with weapons from his household.
"Responsible gun owners secure their firearms," Adams said. "We recommend owning a safe if you have a weapon, but there are many other ways to secure guns."
Adams reminded gun owners that cable locks are provided free of charge from NC S.A.F.E. at most law enforcement agencies, including at the Garner Police Department, and now at schools.
"We must protect our youth," Adams said.
While many students get guns from their own home, other gun incidents involving juveniles involve stolen weapons. Most of the guns stolen in North Carolina are stolen out of cars, officials said, urging people to never leave firearms in cars, even if the car is locked.
Wednesday evening, dozens of parents attended a Parent Safety Night event at Garner Magnet High School. Kendrick Scott, the senior director of security for Wake schools, spoke at the event, saying gun safety is an issue statewide.
"This problem is not a ZIP code problem, it's an everyone problem and it's an everyone solution," Scott said.
NC S.A.F.E. resources
All Wake County schools now have free gun storage locks for anyone to take if they want one.
Lassiter said Wake is the first school system to partner with the program but that more are coming on soon. He plans to ask them if they want to have free gun storage locks on site, as well.
Parents can learn how to store firearms safely at home and on the go, how to talk to children about gun safety and how to make sure that schools and playdates are a safe environment from NC S.A.F.E. Download a free gun safety kit or request a free gun lock from Project Child Safe.
The Durham County Gun Safety Program also offers outreach events, best safety practices and free gun locks on request.
Lassiter said the state Department of Public Safety is tracking how successful its programming is.
About a quarter of people who attend a safe gun storage event hosted by DPS tell them they plan to take additional gun safety measures, Lassiter said. That jumped to three-quarters once DPS started handing out free locks.
But some people still hold out, he said, because they're worried about being able to readily access their weapon.
"That's not an excuse anymore," he said. People can now buy gun safes with biometric locks that can be opened instantaneously with, for example, a thumbprint.
Jackson said he doesn't hear any real opposition to safe gun storage.
"No one's against safe storage of firearms," he said. Guns are a sensitive topic, "but safe storage isn't contentious, it's consensus."
Taylor emphasized that the issue stretches beyond school safety.
"Many of those tragedies don't occur on campuses," he said. "They happen at home and in places where a child really should feel safe."
Accidental shootings, intentional shootings and suicides are growing problems among youth, leaders said.
UnSafe: North Carolina kids dying from gun violence
Many of Thursday's speakers were featured last year in the WRAL Documentary "Unsafe: North Carolina kids dying from gun violence."
Gun violence kills more young people in the U.S. than any other cause. In 2024, WRAL Investigative Documentary Reporter Cristin Severance shed light on the devastating impacts of gun violence through the deeply personal story of one family's loss. The tragic death of 8-year-old Jenesis Dockery, who died four days shy of her 9th birthday after getting shot by her babysitter’s 11-year-old son, shows just how many lives are destroyed by gun violence.