Ex-U.S. defense brass form gun control group for veterans

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ex-U.S. defense brass form gun control group for veterans
June 10, 2016

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gun control group to prevent suicides among U.S. veterans has been formed by retired U.S. Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus and former astronaut Mark Kelly, it said on Friday.

About 22 U.S. veterans commit suicide every day and almost 70 percent kill themselves with a firearm, the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense said in a statement, citing government data. Veterans are often afflicted with depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The coalition will lobby to close loopholes in background check laws and partner with other veterans groups to boost mental health, it added.

Kelly, a former Navy captain, became a vocal gun control advocate after his wife, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head in 2011 in an assassination attempt. In 2013 the couple formed another gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-u-defense-brass-form-gun-control-group-200739773.html?nhp=1

[jtuck004]

1. How many of them have been waiting for treatment at the VA that never came?

Victim (veteran) blaming is easier than doing what will really fix it.

""When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important?" McDonald told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington. "What's important is what's your satisfaction with the experience?""

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/23/politics/veterans-affairs-secretary-disneyland-wait-times/

The video at the link starts out talking about hundreds of veterans who died, waiting for their "experience".

[mpcamb]

9. David Petraeus ???? Is this so kinda plan to re-elevate his staus?

I know it sounds like I'm always looking for something beneath the surface, but come on!
He's described as "retired" in the article. Disgraced? Scandalous? Inglorious?
Seriously we can come a lot closer without trying to rehabilitate his reputation.

[NuclearDem]

2. Can't rec this enough.

[libodem]

6. Excellent graphics

Thank you for posting them.

[braddy]

12. NPR points out the fallacy of that 22 a day claim.

The Number 22: Is There A 'False Narrative' For Vet Suicide?

http://www.npr.org/2015/10/01/444999996/the-number-22-is-there-a-false-narrative-for-vet-suicide

[NuclearDem]

13. Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans are still veterans.

[braddy]

14. So are WWII vets and Korean vets and all the vets still alive from the inbetween years,

your claim still has holes.

Besides, the warrior class is more action oriented, if they want to kill themselves, they will, and they won't need the assisted suicide organizations for help, except for the ones in old age homes in their 70s and 80s and 90s perhaps.

[NuclearDem]

15. The only point I'm making that is that there are too many veterans killing themselves.

And they're not getting remotely sufficient help from the organizations responsible for taking care of them.

[braddy]

16. Creating a false narrative and anti-vet image and even an anti-military image doesn't help. This

is from that NPR article.

"Helping vets: that's what the number 22 motivated a lot of people to try to do.
Jennings, the clinical psychologist, agrees it has raised awareness. But he worries that the big, inaccurate, number contributes to a corrosive stereotype about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

"That narrative goes something like, American enlists, American goes to war, American comes back and is diagnosed with a mental health condition or is broken — somehow there's this connotation — and because they have PTSD, they ultimately kill themselves. That's a false narrative," he says."

The media has been trying to create a negative image of vets for at least 50 years.

[NuclearDem]

17. That's a ridiculous stretch.

Vets are disproportionately affected by PTSD and traumatic brain injuries simply due to the nature of the field. They're not getting the proper treatment they would need with those numbers. This is something veterans groups are talking about and advocating for changes to. I'm an OEF veteran, and a member of IAVA. This isn't a "negative image" of veterans created by the media. That's just some of the most ridiculous, astoundingly dumb spin I've ever seen on the subject.

[braddy]

18. Then quit selling your imagery, there are serious challenges to your entire imagery that you are

pushing on this thread.

There is no question that the media has been pushing the myth that vets are unstable, mentally troubled, traumatized broken men, for 50 years, and right now the current "22 suicides a day" line is called into question.

[NuclearDem]

19. Ridiculous spin.

I would absolutely love to know which reality you live in where the media is hostile to veterans.

Here's IAVA's page on suicide.

http://iava.org/continue-to-combat-suicide-among-troops-and-veterans/

The Clay Hunt SAV Act, signed into law on February 12, 2015, puts into motion three critical policies to help end veteran suicide by increasing access to mental health care, better meeting the growing demand for mental health care providers, and boosting the accountability of Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) mental health and suicide prevention programs. Even with this progress, the fight against this silent killer has only begun. It will take the full force of our nation to combat the crisis of suicide among troops and veterans.

The VA estimates that 22 veterans die from suicide each day, and the Department of Defense (DoD) reports that 434 service members (active and reserve components) died by suicide in 2014. Despite increased efforts to combat suicide among troops and veterans, we are still missing the fundamentals of a high-quality, timely mental health care system. The Clay Hunt SAV Act was a first step in addressing this challenge, but there is still more to be done

Troops and veterans deserve immediate access to the best mental health care in the world, yet more than 70 percent of IAVA’s surveyed members indicate they did not believe that troops and veterans are getting the care they need. Common barriers to care—like lack of access to providers, inconvenient appointment availability and limited access to evidence-based treatments—make getting help difficult. Additionally, the stigma of seeking mental health care continues to be an obstacle for many veterans.

Among survey respondents who self-report a mental health injury but have not sought help, the main reason for not seeking care are concerns over how their loved ones and peers will perceive them and concerns that it might affect their career. Significantly more work is needed to eliminate the barriers and stigma that prevent many from seeking the care they need.

IAVA is the largest organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the country, started specifically by an Iraq veteran. Are they also part of your media conspiracy to portray all veterans as mentally unstable and traumatized?

Ironically, your whole "defense" of veterans is one of the enablers of the suicide epidemic--active-duty servicemembers end up discouraged from seeking mental health treatment for fear of putting their careers in jeopardy, and veterans, especially men, refuse to seek help afterwards because they think it makes them look weak or unstable. You're adding to the stigma of getting help, and that makes the problem worse.

[braddy]

20. It isn't ridiculous at all, but I see that you are not going to check your facts or look into the

NPR article and the research that has been done to clear up the mistakes of what you are selling.

[trc]

21. facts are facts, unless they aren't...or don't meet our needs

The NPR article states: "That number, 22, doesn't really apply to the veterans everyone thinks it does: those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan." See the bias? The only vets that count are the most recent and they are not killing themselves at the rate of 22 a day...so the problem is being overstated.

"The study looked at vets of all ages, and found that most who killed themselves were likely too old to have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The authors were clear about that, and other caveats, but their cautions are often ignored when people talk about the number 22." &quot The researchers) found that vets who had served during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars commit suicide at a rate of about one a day — not 22."

So the vets that count only die at the rate of one a day, the other 21 are just overblown statistics for vets that don't really matter. Awesome.

Or maybe I read this wrong, after all I am just a vet whose service falls into the realm of the 21 who don't matter.

[braddy]

22. So am I part of the old vets, Nixon and Reagan for me, but the claim of 22 is what is in question,

but like you said, you are a member of a group, you seem invested in protecting this theme of 22 a day and the visuals you use to push it implies that it is young vets also.

[Nihil]

23. Thank you for posting that collection.

And I also thank you for keeping calm & rationally correcting the troll who has
been attempting to brush this very real problem under the carpet.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. I expect to see piles of application forms at the local VFW and American Legion posts.

In case any vets want to join.

[braddy]

4. Why would this lead to that?

[libodem]

5. GOOD!

[RiverNoord]

7. Good god - I didn't know.

22 a day? How can we fail any group of Americans as badly as this? I survived and recovered from a long-term, debilitating panic and anxiety disorder with the natural accompanying severe depression. For a few years there probably wasn't an hour that went by that didn't involve considering suicide.

I got lucky, really lucky, to find a really good doctor, vocational rehabilitation services, and the resources I needed to make it through the process of recovery.

Veterans shouldn't have to get lucky in that way - PSTD after involvement in any aspect of combat is going to afflict many veterans. We know this. There isn't a higher at-risk group for it - so WTF are we doing?

[Rafale]

8. Soldiers/Sailors are not dumb

They will find other ways to commit suicide. The real issue that needs attention here is mental health treatment--better funded research, better quality care and at no cost to soldiers and every other citizen. F#*k self-serving political polemics.

[shadowmayor]

10. Laudable but

Anything that incompetent asshole Petraeus touches will crumble. He should be in jail for being the war criminal that he is. Fuck him and all the other rah rah generals who couldn't wait to wade into Iraq and surge up Afghanistan. Still wondering where the flowers at my feet went, and Dick and Don - what WMD's?

What did the people of Iraq ever do to the people of the United States?

[mark67]

11. You guys are being too cynical...

This is a good thing...where do I sign up.

I've seen this whole thing get out of hand over here.

As GEN Stanley McCrystal said, the M4 assault rifle has no place in civilian society.

Gun humper response in 5...4...3...