The Top Gun Industry Trade Group Just Pledged to Help to Prevent Nearly 10,000 Suicides
Source: the Trace
The Top Gun Industry Trade Group Just Pledged to Help to Prevent Nearly 10,000 Suicides
Heres why that might be a huge development.
by Maura Ewing
·August 30, 2016
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industrys top trade group, is partnering for the first time with the leading suicide prevention nonprofit organization in the U.S. The ambitious goal of the collaboration: averting nearly 10,000 deaths over the next decade.
The program, initiated by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, will strive to educate people on the risk factors and warning signs of suicide, and provide guidance on how best to talk to someone who may be considering trying to end his or her own life, says Robert Gebbia, the chief executive of AFSP.
Notably, the program will also recommend blocking family members who are suicidal from accessing firearms by, for example, emphasizing the importance of securely locking guns away. It is not clear whether the AFSP guidance will include specific suggestions about how to remove weapons from potentially suicidal people. The NSSF, which represents thousands of gun dealers and manufacturers, provided input into the program and is also promoting it.
Gun groups have traditionally been reluctant to acknowledge that the presence of a firearm poses an increased risk to people who are considering taking their own lives. Gebbia says buy-in from the NSSF is especially important in persuading people that blocking gun access in certain situations is about saving lives, not depriving people of their rights...........
Read more: https://www.thetrace.org/2016/08/top-gun-industry-group-nssf-suicide-prevention/
Suicides are a public health issue and I am glad to see this.
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The Trace ?@teamtrace 13h13 hours ago
According to @GunDeaths, there have been 36,909 incidents of gun violence in America so far this year.
marble falls
(57,355 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,222 posts)NickB79
(19,276 posts)Hell, the police didn't even write down in their report my defensive use of a firearm since I only threatened to shoot but didn't actually discharge the gun, even though I told both officers exactly what happened at the scene of the crime.
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts).......when it supports their ideology?
CBHagman
(16,992 posts)By far the largest percentage of deaths by gunfire are suicides, and stopping suicide ought to be a cause that knows no boundaries. Medical professionals, educators, parents, clergy, lawmakers, Republicans, Democrats, independents all should be willing to take this on.
Their should be no debate on this subject.