In contrast to the public divisiveness that often characterizes the debate over gun violence, a seemingly unlikely partnership has quietly unfolded that aims to reduce gun suicides by spreading prevention techniques among firearm owners and sellers, NBC News reported on Monday.
The growing movement brings together the medical community, which typically views guns as a public threat, and the firearms industry, which distrusts most attempts to restrict access to guns.
The effort is slowly sweeping through gun country, particular states with high rates of firearm ownership, such as Utah, which also have a disproportionate rise in suicides, more than half of which are by firearms.
For many gun dealers, range owners and firearms instructors suicide prevention fits into their mission to encourage the safe use of weapons, according to NBC. Hundreds of them nationwide now share suicide-prevention literature, stress prevention techniques, teach workers to recognize distress among customers and welcome prevention advocates to firearm trade shows.
“This is a new way to go about reducing suicidal persons’ access to guns ─ not by promoting an anti-gun agenda but by asking gun owners to be part of the solution,” Catherine Barber, who directs the Means Matter Campaign to prevent suicide at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Control Research Center, told NBC. “Vilifying them isn’t going to work.”
Another advantage this movement has is that, unlike “red flag” laws, there is no new legislation needed. This is because the partnership is voluntary and focuses on public-education campaigns to deal with the issue.
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