Safes keep people safe

NORWALK — The Huron County Sheriff's Office, in association with Huron County Public Health, gave away 100 gun safes and trigger locks at an event hosted at the sheriff's office's lobby on Thursday morning. The event saw residents lining up before the 9 a.m. start and all the safes and locks were given away within 30 minutes. "This was a great turnout and I'm happy at how many in the community came out to take advantage of this drive to increase firearm safety," said Huron County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Dave Ditz. Although at first glance the safes provided were gun safes, they can also provide security for other dangerous items, including prescription drugs, which can cause significant injuries if ingested by children. "The idea behind this program is that these safes will allow residents to store their guns or prescription drugs safely and lower the risk to youth to access them," Paige Snyder, Huron County Public Health prevention coordinator, said. Although the rates of youth suicide and drug overdoses are low in Huron County, according to Huron County Public Health data analyst Grace Habeck, this is a good program to "keep those numbers low and to remind people to keep those items locked up." The safe and lock giveaway is only one aspect of a program made possible through grant funding. The grant Huron County Public Health and the Ohio Department of Health Youth Suicide Prevention Grant provide money to communities to prevent youth suicide. This initiative is currently in its second year. The grant's first year ran from March 1, 2024, to Sept. 14, 2024, with an initial award of $40,000. Each subsequent year provides $80,000 in funding, with the grant concluding on Sept. 14, 2027, according to a press release from Huron County Public Health. "There are 3 tiers to this program," Snyder said. "This is tier one, controlling access to firearms, tier two is providing CALM training to staff and the third is implementing suicide prevention training. There is a group called CALM America that will provide those trainings in the future." According to Habeck, the county purchased around 350 safes this year, with more safes coming available to the public in August. Safes are also available if a community member needs one in an emergency. "There will be more at the fair this year, there are also some sent to certain agencies," Syder said. "If someone is in a crisis situation, they can be given a safe or a lock. If someone is in mental health distress or there is someone in the home who is suicidal, it's a help to be able to lock up the weapons." Each safe comes loaded with flyers containing mental health hotline information, suicide helpline numbers, suicide warning signs and a confidential survey. Snyder said these resources are meant to help notify the community of available resources. Ditz explained that even if someone were to know the combination, the safe will provide a "cooling off period" before someone would be able to get hold of a weapon. "It's one extra step, between someone thinking and acting," Ditz said. "It's another barrier for people to reprocess their thoughts before accessing a weapon." Ditz expressed his satisfaction in being a part of the initiative and look forward to participating in future giveaways. "We are happy to be in collaboration with them and we get the pleasure of handing it out, and will be looking forward to doing it again next year," Ditz said. "This (initiative) is really going to make a difference."