When philanthropist and businessman Mike Candido heard the local hospital could use gun locks, it created a cascading effect. What started as a pet project morphed into something much bigger.
Candido is the president of J. Moore & Co. Mechanical Contractors and a philanthropist in North New Jersey. Over the years, Candido has built a relationship with St Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson. He says he had “a 16-year stretch on their foundation board” and at a recent fundraising gala, he was approached by some emergency room doctors to discuss firearm related issues.
A gun owner and long-time Second Amendment supporter, Candido is their go-to guy on anything firearm related. They asked about being able to get gun locks for patients.
“Hey, you know, we hand out trigger locks to a lot of our patients. People come in as victims of gunshots and stuff, and just generally speaking, we think a lot of the neighborhood is not very gun safety savvy,” Candido said is how a doctor explained the situation to him. “So we hand out trigger locks and we keep running out of them because it’s hard to get them. We don’t have the budget to buy them.”
After donating a box of locks he acquired over the years, Candido solicited for some help to get more. He turned to one of New Jersey’s biggest names in the Second Amendment, Anthony Colandro.
Colandro is an NRA board member, master firearms instructor, podcast host, author of the book “Crime Proof,” and founder/co-owner of Gun for Hire at the Woodland Park Range. To help Candido in his quest to supply the hospital with more locks, Colandro set up a donation box at the six-star range. The response was enormous.
“When Mike approached us and asked if we had any extra gun locks for the emergency room at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, of course a light was lit amongst all of us and we realized that there was an unserved need in the community,” Colandro told Bearing Arms. “We stepped up and did what we had to do to fill that gap.” That’s when LockItUp.life was born.
Although they collected a lot of locks, for Colandro and fellow co-owners Rich Olenick and Matt Dancsecs, those donations from customers weren’t enough. They went to the firearm industry to get more locks and tried to partner with other groups; those talks ran flat. Colandro said that “we do whatever it takes to further safe responsible gun ownership,” and they went on to build a new program on their own.
The Gun for Hire Team sourced companies where they could buy the locks from. They found some locks that Candido described as “reasonably priced” and they ordered some.
“Let’s buy 3000 of these,” Colandro said to Candido. “Look, I’ll split the cost of them with you,” Candido responded. “So we went in as partners on this thing.” They built the LockItUp.life website for their fledgling organization and now look to expand.
Brian Dolan is one of the directors at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center’s emergency department and he talked about the program. He told Bearing Arms that the two hospital campuses — one in Paterson and one in Wayne — keep locks in their waiting areas and are offered “no questions asked.” Dolan explained they also distribute gun safety information via a QR code to St Joseph’s Health that links to different gun safety programs.
“This was a combined effort with trauma surgery and the emergency department,” Dolan told Bearing Arms. He said that they were seeing an increase in firearm-related injuries in pediatric patients. “This was one of the initiatives, as far as community outreach, and one of the safety initiatives that we’re going to use to try to decrease that potential avenue.”
Dolan said that they started collecting and distributing gun locks in May 2023. After going through about 100 locks that he said were donated from another organization, there was still a huge demand that couldn’t be met.
In the years since, Dolan said that they noticed a decrease in accidental shootings. “So the hope is that these are going to help make the community, the staff, and the pediatric patients safer,” he explained. Dolan estimates they’ve distributed over 2000 locks over the years.
“It started off with St Joe’s, but then we’re going to be growing,” Gun For Hire LLC co-owner Rich Olenick said. “We’re going to be growing it from there, hoping to spread the word, hoping that it gets out to some different organizations.”
Olenick followed up by saying that due to the Gun for Hire Radio podcast, they also have continued to receive an influx of donated locks. Between what comes in from customers and the locks that the group had manufactured, they should have enough to keep them going for a little while. Olenick explained that they are taking monetary donations through the website from people who are interested in supporting the efforts.
“The momentum is growing. It sounds like it’s going to continue to work well,” Olenick said. “It’s very exciting. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s exciting to be part of something that could translate to helping save people and prevent injuries.” Olenick indicated that due to the popularity, they’re discussing incorporating as a 501(c)(3).
Gun For Hire’s third co-owner Matt Dancsecs said that as soon as Colandro “waved his wand” to get this program started, he began to build the website. With the help from one of the managers, Phoebe, they constructed the site from scratch as well as put together an over 20-page booklet to go along with the locks.
“I think at the end of the day we’re just trying to prevent any accidents and preserve life,” Dancsecs told Bearing Arms. “It’s so damaging when something bad happens like this, and all [someone] needed to do was lock it.” Dancsecs said this initiative is something small that they could do to help the community.
Anthony Colandro told Bearing Arms that at Gun For Hire LLC, they’re going to continue to train people on safety, transporting firearms, as well as storing them. “This was just the perfect fit to give back to the community,” Colandro noted.
LockItUp.life is now open for service. There’s important gun safety information there as well as info for those who are seeking gun locks. As noted, they are seeking much-needed donations, especially as they continue to grow their operation. For more information, be sure to visit: LockItUp.life
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