SF gun safety program launched in memory of 9-year-old boy

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A new initiative by the San Francisco Police Department, Pierce’s Pledge Gun Safety Storage Program, was launched Monday in honor of a young boy named Pierce.

Pierce’s father lived in an apartment in San Francisco’s Marina district. The 9-year-old boy was fatally shot by his father while the boy was sleeping in the apartment, according to Pierce’s mother.

Around the time of the shooting in 2021, Pierce’s parents were in the middle of a child custody legal dispute.

“My son Pierce was murdered with a gun by his father, my ex-husband. Pierce was only 9 years old, and I was fighting for custody to keep him safe,” Lesley Hu, Pierce’s mother, wrote in a statement released through the mayor’s office.

Under the new program, SFPD will offer San Franciscans a safe way to remove firearms from their homes by surrendering them at any of the city’s 10 police stations. Residents’ firearms can be securely stored by police for up to one year at no cost to the gun owner.

The program aims to provide safe zones for residents to store firearms securely away from their homes during volatile circumstances.

Pierce was shot in the heart on January 13, 2021, a website for Pierce’s Pledge states.

“Pierce’s love of life exuberated out of his sparkling brown eyes and braces-filled smile,” the website states. The boy loved his friends, school, traveling to foreign countries, skiing, telling jokes, dancing, and chocolate mousse.

SFPD officials said the Pierce’s Pledge Safe Gun Storage Program is the first of its kind in the nation. Once guns are surrendered at a police station, they will be packaged and relocated to a centralized facility.

Hu wrote, “Responsible gun ownership is knowing when having the gun out of the house is safer than in it. This is a real solution that will save lives. We created Pierce’s Pledge to prevent the kind of tragedy our family has endured.”

Interim SFPD Chief Paul Yep said, “The San Francisco Police Department is proud to partner with Ms. Lesley Hu and Pierce’s Pledge to launch this meaningful program to save lives. Securely stored firearms can prevent tragic incidents.”

Pierce’s mother said protecting children during custody disputes and other challenges at home is a shared responsibility.

She wrote, “The (SFPD) has given our community a resource to store firearms when a home situation changes — when a loved one is suicidal, a teen is in crisis, or the gun should not be in the home.”

Hu founded Pierce’s Pledge as a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for children during volatile custody disputes. The nonprofit works with lawyers, mediators, and judges.