What Public Officials Can Do
Initial Steps
- Join other officials on the Request for Information on behalf of your city, county or state; and designate a point person from your staff to be in regular contact with DNSIB (Public Commitment Form).
Broadening the Campaign
- Contact your peers in other jurisdictions and ask them to participate.
- Work with DNSIB to hold an informational event for public officials and law enforcement leaders in your state or region.
Deepening the Campaign
- Work with DNSIB to highlight the bad-apple dealers in your area and ask manufacturers to pressure those dealers to upgrade their practices.
- Issue an RFP for limited quantities of smart firearm products for research purposes so that law enforcement personnel in your jurisdiction can rigorously test and evaluate them to determine their suitability for larger-scale use in the field.
- Make a modest change in your gun procurement:
- If your jurisdiction purchases police service weapons directly, require manufacturers to respond to the RFI before your next firearms purchase and notify manufacturers of this requirement; OR
- If your jurisdiction allows officers to make their own purchases, reimbursing them later, adopt an Approved Dealer Policy, which would prevent taxpayer dollars from subsidizing dealers that feed the illegal gun market in your area.
- Measure the safety performance of gun manufacturers and dealers in your area:
- Compile and release a breakdown of the brands of crime guns recovered in your area. Releasing it is a key step towards holding manufacturers accountable for their distribution practices.
- Work with DNSIB to evaluate the gun dealers in your area that supply disproportionate numbers of crime guns.
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Work with DNSIB to hold a Smart Tech Show, highlighting a variety of gun-safety technologies – those currently on the market as well as those in development.
