Thursday, November 03, 2011
With suicides in the military continually rising, the Center for a New American Security has recommended Congress repeal the restriction, imposed last year, on commanders talking to troops about their personally owned guns.
The think tank’s new report says eliminating the federal rule would allow unit leaders to “suggest to service members exhibiting high-risk behavior, acting erratically or struggling with depression that they use gunlocks or store their guns temporarily at the unit armory.”
Getting rid of the restriction will mean overcoming the lobbying power of the National Rifle Association (NRA), which promoted the restriction in the first place. The NRA considers attempts by base commanders to influence the control of personally owned weapons to be “preposterous.”
The report says U.S. Army suicides have increased steadily since 2004, and the service reported a record-high number of suicides in July 2011, with 33. The rates of suicide among active-duty members of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force are significantly higher than in the general population.
In 2010, 48% of military suicides were carried out using privately owned firearms.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Showdown Looming Behind Pentagon's Suicide Battle (by Phil Ewing, Military.com)
Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide (by Margaret C. Harrell and Nancy Berglass, Center for a New American Security) (pdf)
Army Reserve and National Guard Suicides Double; Active Duty Down (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Air Force Suicide Rate Hits 17-Year High (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Marine Corps Tries to Cope with Rising Suicide Rate (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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