NORWAY – The police department is offering free gun locks to gun owners in the community.

A shipment of about 400 locks were received recently under a grant from Project ChildSafe, a national program promoting safe firearm ownership and storage.

Anyone can come in during the department’s business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in Norway Town Hall and get up to two free locks under the National Shooting Sports Foundation program, funded by a grant from the Department of Justice.

Acting police Chief Rob Federico said the locks aren’t going to prevent someone from stealing firearms, but “it is going to prevent the gun from being used while the lock is in place,” he said.

The locks work best for handguns, but can also be used to lock the firing mechanism of rifles, he said.

The locks come with a firearms safety brochure that covers options for safe firearms storage.

Even if gun clips or magazines are stored separately from the gun itself, a child can find both and put them together if the gun is not locked in some manner, he said.

Those picking up locks are also given pledge certificates for parents to ask their children to sign. In this way, the parents can impress upon the child the importance of never handling a gun without permission from an adult that they know.

For more information about the town’s participation in Project ChildSafe, call Norway police at 743-5303.