CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayors, county executives, and police leaders from 31 communities across the country are joining forces to try to use their buying power to trigger a reduction in gun violence.
The Kane, Lake, and Cook County sheriff's departments, the Hazel Crest Police Department, as well as the suburbs of Deerfield, Oak Park, Highland Park, and Park Ridge are among those in the Gun Safety Consortium.
Local and federal governments make up 40 percent of gun purchases in the United States, according to the consortium.
The first products the officials would like to see developed by the gun industry include quick release gun locking devices that give a gun owner the ability to use the weapon within five seconds, guns that have technology to prevent unauthorized people from using them, and GPS systems for guns.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain is one of the founders of the consortium. He said researchers have found that fewer than half of the nation's gun owners keep their guns secured on a regular basis.
"So, in more than half of the tens of millions of gun-owning households, there’s a gun that’s left accessible to a small child or a family member with suicidal impulses or even a thief," he said.
That's why "we have to make guns theft-proof. We have to make them child-proof and accident-proof, as possible," Sheriff Hain told hundreds of people from around the country on a Zoom news conference.
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The consortium said that in 2018, 61 percent of gun deaths in the USA were suicides, 35 percent were homicides, and .2 percent were mass shootings.
Giving the gun industry financial incentive to come up with safety products, officials said, will result in fewer suicides, accidents, and homicides.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said the industry needs to invest in “smart” guns, so guns don’t fall into the hands of the wrong people.
"If I leave my phone at a restaurant, it locks up and nobody can use it, but a gun left behind is used for the vast majority of inner city violence and the vast majority of suicides," he said.
Among those speaking during the consortium's online event was Pastor Richard Gibson of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.
"It’s time to end the senseless and endless carnage in America," he said.
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Anne Arundel County, Maryland Executive Steuart Pittman offers the example of a child of a police officer in his county who found the officer's gun, played with it, and ended up shot.
"There’s a biometric holster that would have prevented that had that officer had it or police chief was intrigued by that technology," he said.
Lansing, Michigan Police Chief Daryl Green said many gun owners never or just sometimes use gun boxes or safes because they say they want “instant access” to their guns, without fumbling with a cable lock or going to where the safe is.
"What’s needed on the market is a variety of products that combines security with quick access by the gun owner," Green said.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said that, "When it comes to gun violence, we are seeking to find common sense solutions to the problems that our politicians in Washington either don’t care about or are incapable of addressing."
The Toledo mayor added, "We know we’re not going to eliminate gun violence in the United States with this initiative, but we’re going to reduce it."
The Gun Safety Consortium hopes to have vendors respond by June 1 to a request for proposed gun safety products. It hopes to have some police departments testing products during off-duty hours by sometime in the fall.
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