Columbus Fire Captain Matt Parrish
Columbus City Council votes Monday on a plan to purchase gun locks and give them away for free.
The proposal would purchase 1,500 cable gun locks and distribute them at Columbus fire stations. Columbus Fire Captain Matt Parrish said the program is meant to deter accidental shootings, and it fits in other public safety efforts they’ve led in the past.
“We’ve done similar programs with like smoke detectors or carbon monoxide and fans from different times to get those distributed to the community, Parrish said. Fire stations are in every neighborhood.”
The measure will cost the city about $8,500, and it joins a similar program led by the public health department giving away gun lockboxes.
The city of Columbus is rolling out a four-to-six-week pilot program on Monday that will help determine whether 911 calls need an emergency response by police and firefighter-medics or by others, such as social workers or clinicans who are better equipped to deal with mental health or substance abuse issues. For far too often and long, we ve asked police officers to be social workers, medics, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said Friday during a news conference to announce what is being called the Alternative Response Pilot Program. The event was held at Columbus Public Health near Downtown.
A paramedic and Columbus Public Health clinician will be embedded in the city s 911 call center to help triage calls and determine whether police and fire should be responding to calls or someone else, said Columbus Fire Capt. Matt Parrish.
Homicides are happening at a record pace in Columbus this year. With that kind of violence demanding attention, it could be easy to miss a rash of accidental shootings. Police have reported seven such shootings this year, five just since the beginning of March. One organization is giving out free gun lockboxes to help curb accidental shootings.