When it comes to managing sensitive equipment as a public safety officer, your firearms are some of the most high-risk assets you can leave improperly secured. While there’s been a lot of conversation in the media about how to use firearms responsibly, there are several best practices you can utilize to help ensure that they are only accessible to authorized personnel who are fully accountable for their use. 

A total of 293 firearms have been found in carry-on bags and as improperly packed or undeclared guns in checked luggage at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport so far this year. The TSA reports that 80 to 90 percent of them are loaded.

A divided federal appeals court struck down California’s concealed weapons rules on Tuesday, saying they violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms. By a 2-1 vote, the judge panel said California was wrong to require applicants to show good cause to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote for the majority that “The right to bear arms includes the right to carry an operable firearm outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense.”

The First Florida District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that colleges and universities have no vested or delegated authority to regulate firearms on campus – only Legislature has that authority, according to a report from The Examiner.

The U.S. House approved Tuesday a 10-year extension of an existing federal law banning guns that can go undetected by metal detectors and X-ray machines, such as plastic guns.

After Iowa permits legally blind people to buy and carry firearms in public, the debate over gun control legislation is back in the public forum, according to CNN.

Officials in Newtown, Conn., have unanimously approved a local ordinance limiting recreational shooting in the town, according to Time.

A school system in northern Georgia is considering a proposal that would allow district police to store rifles in school offices in case they’re needed to defend students in a school shooting, Fox News reports.

The Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is expected to enact a statute next month nullifying all federal gun laws in the state and making it a crime for federal agents to enforce them there.

The proposed legislation would encourage law enforcement to report firearms used in violent crimes to a national database to be traced.