In West, region of guns and suicide, outreach to curb deaths

David Crary, Ap National Writer
Updated 2:46 pm, Sunday, April 3, 2016



MONTROSE, Colorado (AP) — Keith Carey is a gunsmith in Montrose, a town with a frontier flavor set amid the mesas of western Colorado. He's a staunch, though soft-spoken, defender of the right to bear arms.

Yet now he's a willing recruit in a fledgling effort to see if the gun community itself — sellers and owners of firearms, operators of shooting ranges — can help Colorado and other Western states reduce their highest-in-the-nation suicide rates.

"Suicide is a tragedy no matter how it's done," said Carey, whose adult daughter killed herself with a mix of alcohol and antidepressants a few years ago on the East Coast. However, he sees the logic in trying gun-specific prevention strategies in towns like Montrose, where guns are an integral part of daily life.

"It's very expedient for people to commit suicide by a firearm, without too much forethought," Carey said. "Unfortunately, it's generally effective."

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/In-West-region-of-guns-and-suicide-outreach-to-7225037.php

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How did guns become more important than ANYTHING? More "sacred" than life?

I'm a hunter and I also have a history of Depression. Should I have my rifle and shotgun taken away just because I MIGHT use them to commit suicide???

Kinda paternalistic, don't you think?

No mention of increased funding for treating mental illness, let's just blame those damn gun-toting hicks.

goddamned gun. No life is more important... You refuse to even discuss options.

You are the case in point.

more funding for mental health.

...especially of our youth. The ability or desire to value one's access to guns as more important than saving human lives is not my set of values.

then certainly better mental health care coupled with a national anti-suicide campaign would most definitely save a lot of lives.

Suicide is a complex social phenomena with multiple causes and enablers. To boil it down to simply "guns" is simplistic magical thinking. It appears to me all you want is a another reason to attack gun owners. When you want to discuss the matter in a more mature manner I will be ready.

How many other rights do you want to take away because they might harm others?

My rights include a community/national discussion of what we find to be 'Well Regulated.'

would by necessity need to deal with the use of firearms as a means of suicide. There is simply no other way around it. If you are a gun owner, the most sensible thing to do would be to join the discussion. You are not the problem, but guns do contribute heavily to the suicide rates. Mental health conditions are usually transient -- suicide attempts by firearm are usually successful. The first contact that folks have with the mental health system is often following an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

strict storage laws for starters. Giving mental health professionals the means to report people that are a danger to themselves or others so that guns can be temporarily removed from the home.

But if the conversation starts and ends with an out right ban then there is no point in continuing the conversation.

There are no reasonable mental health professionals discussing an outright ban, that I know of. Emphasis on the word "reasonable." Honestly, in my neck of the very literally woods, gun ownership is the norm. However, so is working directly with families and law enforcement in order to corral firearms as needed. Our system requires a cooperative and enlightened understanding that firearms are not only part of the cultural fabric but they can also be dangerous under certain circumstances. Our system isn't formal, it is just based on respect and mutual understanding that can only come from open, reflective dialogue designed to help people. No one wants to lose their guns, but they also, more so, don't want to lose their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, nieces, nephews,cousins, friends, etc. to suicide. It is a model that has worked well for us.

However, all of the above is based on the caveat that by the time these conversations take place, it isn't too late. To get to that point gun owners need to take mental health issues and suicide by firearms seriously, maintain responsible storage practices and reach out when they need help. On the other side, mental health professionals, doctors, law enforcement, community members, advocates need to help de-stigmatize mental health conditions and gun ownership. Most of all, we need to stop treating each of these subjects as if they are taboo.

encourage guns safes. Our family keeps all guns in a safe. Only two adults know the combination.

This would do two things - it would keep the guns out of children's hands and it would assure the owners that their guns were not being taken away.

This of course is not the total answer but it would be a beginning.

The isolation can also make Depression worse.

naw, that would be too easy.

Even the ones we think are undeserving? Are you suggesting that the Second Amendment includes our right to discuss and adjust what 'Well Regulated' means?

I like you!

going away.

Gun control is a solution to this symptom, however creating a society in which individuals feel personally empowered by access to healthcare, education and economic opportunities would go just as far if not further in healing this problem.

Case in point - Connecticut's gun law after Sandy Hook. Most of the law was pretty reasonable. However, hidden in the bill is a provision that makes gun ownership illegal for 6 months if a person VOLUNTARILY checks into a mental health facility. It's not just a restriction on buying one, it's actually made a crime to continue to own one's own property without any due process. Now, I don't know of any actual prosecutions, mainly because the law is blatantly unconstitutional and therefore illegal, but it does dissuade people with bi-polar or depression from seeking help at a mental health hospital.

So the people who need help don't get it because they don't want to made into criminals. How fucked up does one need to be to create such a law?