Check out this USA Today editorial by Kris Brown, President of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, on the safe gun storage shown by series heroine Sidney Prescott. In the film, Prescott (Neve Campbell) is seen locking up a gun in a safe.
“These depictions matter,” Brown writes. “When the first Scream film was released in 1996, car crashes were the leading killer of kids in America. Today, guns are. Currently, almost half of all gun owners in America don’t store their guns securely – meaning locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Every day in America, eight kids are unintentionally injured or killed because of an unsecured firearm.
“Television and film can help model… safety measures and change our behaviors to promote safe gun ownership. Research shows that audiences often adopt the behaviors and attitudes of their favorite on-screen characters. When writers and directors take the time to show characters properly storing their firearms, we can inspire audiences everywhere to do the same.”
Brady’s Show Gun Safety program works to incorporate gun safety messages in the media, a strategy that has dramatically reduced other public health epidemics, including drunk driving and motor vehicle deaths.