MUNCIE, Ind.--- It has been one week since a 4-year-old accidentally shot himself and died on Muncie’s south side. This has been the third child in five months in Muncie who has gotten a hold of a gun and shot themselves or someone else.
“It’s devastating,” said Marwin Strong, founder of Enough is Enough. “It really hurt me because I have a 3-year-old grandson and just the mindset of that really touched me.”
Enough is Enough is a group of community members working to stop violence in the city. Strong was born and raised in Muncie, but it came with its challenges.
“With drugs and violence and prostitution, it was the normal thing,” Strong said.
Then after one moment, he turned his life around.
“I was poisoned and spent two years in the hospital,” Strong said. “I had to learn how to walk and talk again like a newborn baby.”
One of Strong’s main teaching points is the importance of gun safety and he is not the only one. Many police departments in the state give out free gun locks.
“Unfortunately, we have been on calls where kids have been shot, injured and killed, I can’t even imagine the pain you go through as a parent,” said Jay Turner, Chief of Eaton Police Department.
EPD is partnered with a nationwide program called Project Child Safe. This program gives step-by-step instructions on how to properly lock a gun and store it.
“Secure the weapons and make sure the kids can’t get to them,” Turner said.
The process to lock a gun takes seconds, and can save someone’s life. To learn more you can visit https://projectchildsafe.org/.
Contact Anna Chalker with comments at alchalker@bsu.edu
