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13 available. For example, you can’t get a concealed carry permit or a hunting license without taking a class; there are shooting teams at the high school of which educational classes are part. We would need to make the firearms safety educational information available without implying that the next step is making it mandatory. The Board would wrestle with this, and our default position would be to direct staff to do something similar to what we did with the deer dog hunting.Another analogy would be the educational efforts made by the Health Department after the Board of Commissioners prohibited smoking in public placesin Orange County. I don’t know what department would lead on this; surely Social Services and the Health Department might each have a component of this, but maybe they would be two arms of a multi-pronged approach. Chief Deputy Sykes said that anyone who is issued a pistol purchase permit or concealcarry permit by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is given a brochure created by the Office that contains the Ten Commandments of Gun Safety, the rules and regulations, General Statutes that are concerned with responsible gun ownership, etc. That brochure will be tailored to incorporate any firearms safety ordinance that might be adopted by the Commissioners. It’sall voluntary information. In addition, we have given out gun locks for years free of charge. We get them from the KidSafe Foundation. People can request them from us, or we will present them to people in situations where we think it might be needed. Whensomeone comes into our office involved in a domestic violence situation, or if we are assisting someone in an involuntary commitment proceeding through the court, then we do a threat assessment. Gun safety is one of the things we’ll investigate, as much as we can reasonably. We can provide our brochure to these other organizations, and they can tailor it and make it their own. And we would be glad to help them. Dr. Arvik suggested that a volunteer, non-governmental organization be the one that takes the firearms safety message to the churches and schools, etc. This would underscore our intention that the firearms safety message is not in the service of anyone trying to undermine anyone’s Second Amendment rights. Perhaps the organization can receive funding assistance from the County. You need a voice delivering the message that is credible and wants to do the right thing. I think I can find a lot of those kinds of people, he said. Bass Pro Shops and anyone else trying to sell guns might be interested in helping us, because they are at great financial risk if firearms are increasingly associated with misuse. I’m sure they would be in support of providing safety trainers. Perhaps the County would have a role in referring interested local civic groups to the trainers. I imagine a twenty-minute presentation tointerested audiences about actual risks and how to handle guns safely in order to avoid the risks; they then could hand out brochures. Commissioner McKee said that the non-governmental organization could be one similar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Yes, said Dr. Arvik, “Gun Safety in Orange County.” Ms. Barksdale said that North Carolinians Against Gun Violence might be interested in playing a role; I’m the Orange County Chair, she said. Dr. Arvik said that he and she could probably identify a dozen organizations who would be happy to have someone speak to their members