NH: Alliance of healthcare & gun stores to curb suicides.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/20 ... n-suicides

The above link is to an article from the 9/3/2016 edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

Mental health professionals and gun store owners (some, anyway) in New Hampshire are trying to
raise awareness of the problem of gun suicides.

The young man pictured at the top of the piece committed suicide with a .357 revolver that was
usually kept unloaded in a relative's house.

SIA

[Oldgringo]

It's not the guns, it's their winters.

[CoffeeNut]

A very well done article and I think the approaches being taken are a good way to ensure our rights are not under threat while trying to do something to reduce suicides. It's one of the few articles written about the connection between firearms and suicides that really takes a look at the shooting community and how it can be involved rather than trying to legislate away the rights of every American.

"His group, the New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition, asks gun sellers and firing ranges to watch out for any buyers who might be at risk. It promotes the safe storage of guns at home. Its members look out for fellow gun enthusiasts in emotional crises, and encourage them to ask friends to babysit their firearms if they seem to have suicidal thoughts."

I have no issues with that approach whatsoever.

[J.R.@A&M]

A very well done article and I think the approaches being taken are a good way to ensure our rights are not under threat while trying to do something to reduce suicides. It's one of the few articles written about the connection between firearms and suicides that really takes a look at the shooting community and how it can be involved rather than trying to legislate away the rights of every American.

"His group, the New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition, asks gun sellers and firing ranges to watch out for any buyers who might be at risk. It promotes the safe storage of guns at home. Its members look out for fellow gun enthusiasts in emotional crises, and encourage them to ask friends to babysit their firearms if they seem to have suicidal thoughts."

I have no issues with that approach whatsoever.

[Jusme]

Very good article, very thought provoking. Suicide is a real problem especially among teens. I believe gun sellers should be on the lookout for persons in distress, and having suicide prevention info available is probably a good idea.

I like the fact that they didn't blame guns for suicides, but I don't know if attacking the problem at gun stores is going to have that much effect, since most teenagers can't buy guns anyway. I don't have the answers, but I do wish there was a way to reach young people before they make that fatal decision.

[Abraham]

As a kid of the 60's, I don't recall any one of my classmates killing themselves deliberately.

We were all happy to be alive.

I worked at a grocery store after school until 9:30 every day, including working all day Sat and Sun. A lot of my classmates worked after school.

We were all struggling to keep our heads above water and the idea of suicide was completely foreign to us.

So, could one of the reasons for teen suicide caused by giving teens what they don't have to work for...?

Thus, there's little struggle, life is easier than for those of us who had to work hard and wouldn't give in to self doubt or whatever creates a desire for death?

I just don't understand the high risk of suicide for today's youth...

[Jusme]

As a kid of the 60's, I don't recall any one of my classmates killing themselves deliberately.

We were all happy to be alive.

I worked at a grocery store after school until 9:30 every day, including working all day Sat and Sun. A lot of my classmates worked after school.

We were all struggling to keep our heads above water and the idea of suicide was completely foreign to us.

So, could one of the reasons for teen suicide caused by giving teens what they don't have to work for...?

Thus, there's little struggle, life is easier than for those of us who had to work hard and wouldn't give in to self doubt or whatever creates a desire for death?

I just don't understand the high risk of suicide for today's youth...

I don't know all about it either, there was a boy in my son's Boy Scout troop, who's father had passed away a few years earlier. His girlfriend broke up with him and posted derogatory things on social media, and his mother found him hanging in his closet. He was very well liked, seemed to fit in with his peers, but his life was over at 15. You could be right Abraham, not only working, but being involved in things besides staring at computer games and social media sites, might give them more self esteem, or whatever it is that feel they are lacking. Cyber bullying is a real thing, but computers have an off switch. I think too many times, kids get tied up in the small world of electronics, and don't get enough social interaction in the real world. JMHO

[Abraham]

Yes, life has ups and downs, some very tough, but killing yourself and leaving your Mother/Dad/Siblings/Other relatives and friends devastated, you (the suicidee) won't be getting my sympathy.

Mom/Dad/Loved ones and friends yes, you have my deepest sympathy, but you the weakling who checked out, I hope you rot in heck.

And yes, I quite distinctly remember what it was like to be a teenager. And yes, I remember some tough times, but who doesn't at that age and all the others that follow...?

Smoke yourself, nah...very selfish and not worthy of my sympathy.

Also, a very close relative, my BIL, killed himself a few years ago, because he found life to hard. I don't feel much sympathy for him and his weakling approach to life His Mom and Dad are forever haunted, not to mention his sister and friends. What a jerk!

[The Annoyed Man]

Yes, life has ups and downs, some very tough, but killing yourself and leaving your Mother/Dad/Siblings/Other relatives and friends devastated, you (the suicidee) won't be getting my sympathy.

Mom/Dad/Loved ones and friends yes, you have my deepest sympathy, but you the weakling who checked out, I hope you rot in heck.

And yes, I quite distinctly remember what it was like to be a teenager. And yes, I remember some tough times, but who doesn't at that age and all the others that follow...?

Smoke yourself, nah...very selfish and not worthy of my sympathy.

Also, a very close relative, my BIL, killed himself a few years ago, because he found life to hard. I don't feel much sympathy for him and his weakling approach to life His Mom and Dad are forever haunted, not to mention his sister and friends. What a jerk!

Abraham, I understand where you're coming from, but there are so many exceptions to this "iron clad" rule of yours, that it makes you look like you haven't thought this all the way through......like you were being pretty narrow minded, which I know is not normal for you.

I am like you in that I tend to think of suicide, particularly failed attempts at it, as usually a self-indulgent pity party gone wrong. That's my default position, but I had my eyes forced open one day........

I moved here to Texas in 2006 because the company I worked for in California at the time was pulling up its roots and moving to Texas. I came here with my job. The owner of the company, a guy named Jim, was a long time friend of mine. We were both members of the same adult Sunday school class at church, since we first met in early 1994. We went on retreats together, camped together, worshipped together, and had a large circle of friends in common. We remained friends all that I knew him. He hired me in December of 1999 to work for his company. I worked for him until September 2007, when he committed suicide on the 29th of that month.

Jim was 44 when he took his own life. He had been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder back in high school. He was an All American swimmer in college, at the 400, 800, and 1500 meter distances. He was in extraordinarily good condition. He was the successful owner of a small business, and was married with two kids. He fought his Bipolar Disorder successfully for three decades, taking his medications, and having regular followups with a psychiatrist. Most of the time, in fact, almost all the time, you'd never know he struggled. Only those of us who knew him well could tell when he was having difficulties. The problem was that his medications (I don't remember what they were) would work fine and keep him stable for long periods of time, like years, and then at some point, either the choice of drug, or the dosage level of that drug stopped working for him. That's when he'd start to struggle and experience the bipolar rollercoaster. This happened several times over the years that I knew him. Then his psychiatrist would either adjust his dosage, or change the medication, and the rollercoaster would begin to level out again. In August of '07, Jim started struggling again, and as he spiraled downhill, it became as bad as I've ever seen it. His doctor tried changing his medication. The new medication made him feel even worse. In desperation, he started playing with the dosage without notifying his doctor.

I last spoke with Jim on Thursday, September 27, 2007. My father in law has passed away the night before, and I had taken a day off of work. Jim phoned me. He was in California, visiting his mom, having left here the day before. He sounded the happiest I had heard him in a long time. We chatted about work related stuff, about our mutual friends back in California.....stuff like that..... and I asked him when he would be back in the office here. He told me he'd be home on Tuesday, October 2nd. Great, I said, I'll see you then, say Hi to your mom and our friends for me. On Friday the 28th, I went in to work, where I spent most of the time discussing with his brother who also worked there about what we could do to make Jim's load easier when he got home, because we were both worried about him.

On Saturday, September 29th, I got an 11:00 a.m. phone call from a mutual friend of ours to tell me that Jim had killed himself that morning. He started by trying to asphyxiate himself by running the car in his mom's garage, but it wasn't fast enough. Then he tried an OD of something, and slit his wrists in the bathtub, and that wasn't fast enough either. Finally, Jim hung himself from a patio arbor, right outside the kitchen window......which is were our mutual friend found him and cut him down, beginning CPR, but it was too late.

It was devastating. It wasn't just the emotional loss for his family, or his friends. I had moved 1500 miles from home and dragged my family here, and we were still rebuilding our lives in a new state. So had others. Suddenly, I no longer had a job. Neither did the other employees who moved here. Combine all of that with the normal reactions of shock and anger over the suicide of someone close to you, and it was overwhelming.

But every time I considered any anger toward Jim, I couldn't do it. In the end, this is what I decided: Jim had a disease.....not some vague emotional disease, but a real medical disease, treatable (but not curable) by an MD with medication in many cases, but it was a disease. I had to ask myself, if Jim had died of cancer after having valiantly fought it for decades, would I be angry with him? No, I would not. To be angry with someone who dies of a disease like that, particularly when there are no guarantees of outcome, would have been the height of selfishness on my part. Jim died of his disease. I can no more be angry with him than if he had died of cancer.

Was it senseless? Sure. Could it have been avoided? Possibly, but not certainly. He bravely fought his disease for 3 decades, and then he lost.

I cannot not be as uncharitable about it as your response expressed.

[mojo84]

I think the key to mitigating suicide is family and close friends seeing that something is wrong and helping the person get help. I know it's easier said than done but it's more likely a close friend or family member will recognize a serious issue long before a gun store clerk that spends 20-30 minutes selling someone a gun.

Now I'll go read the article.

[Jusme]

I think the key to mitigating suicide is family and close friends seeing that something is wrong and helping the person get help. I know it's easier said than done but it's more likely a close friend or family member will recognize a serious issue long before a gun store clerk that spends 20-30 minutes selling someone a gun.

Now I'll go read the article.

There are often warning signs, if not outright threats before it happens. The young man I mentioned earlier, had confided in some of his friends that he felt he had nothing to live for, but, being teenagers themselves, they didn't take him seriously, and never reported it until after the fact. His family, in hindsight remembered some definite warning signs, but were either in denial, or didn't connect the dots. Suicide is devastating to those left behind, and anger, resentment, and wanting to label the victim as selfish, is common. I too used to believe that it was a coward's way out to avoid the daily struggles we all face, but there is a segment of society, that simply see no other way to end their suffering. I implore everyone, to talk to your kids, and if there is anyone in their circle who has made any type of statements, that may indicate their intention to end their life, to tell someone immediately. It is better to have a live friend, think you have betrayed their confidence, than to have a dead one, that they could have help keep alive.

[Abraham]

TAM,

Undoubtedly, a certain percentage of suicides are understandable and don't deserve condemnation.

Your example is one case in point, another is a terminal patient, with zero possibility of returning to health, in intractable pain that meds can't help. If he or she decides to die a painless death to avoid all the agonizing suffering before nature does it for him or her, I would find fully understandable. I actually admire folks who do that. In my opinion there's nothing noble in long, grueling agony.

My contempt for suicide is for people who simply toss their hands in the air while declaring "I give up" when there are scores of resources to call on, but in many cases their act is one of hostility. "I'll show them, I'll kill myself" They'll all feel bad then. Or, any numbers of other instances where they kill themselves for some ridiculous reason, like "I didn't get enough attention" and on and on.

Having traveled throughout the world and witnessed how the very poor struggle daily simply to stay alive and then look at our own, affluent young and see them throw in the towel because of some minor problem they see as mountainous, doesn't create any sympathy in me. It creates contempt.

I think if our culture would be more condemning of suicide they'd be less of it. Some teens I'm sure think suicide is almost glamorous. Hey, everybody will be thinking of me when I go out.

Yes, there some understandable reasons for suicide, but mostly not...

On another note, I think it very PC to express pity for those that casually kill themselves without taking into account the devastation they leave behind. Kill yourself because: Your girlfriend broke up with you. Or, you got a bad report card, or you were ticketed for speeding driving Dad's car or, or, or, ugh.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

I have had 2 occasions of suicide of people that I have known.

1. The first was a young man of about 20-22 years of age, Joe, with whom I worked. He was a handsome
lad, son of a LEO, was engaged to be married to an attractive, nice woman, and he had diabetes.
He was not supposed to drink alcohol, but did. He should have been monogamous with his fiance,
but he was seeing other women on the sly.
One Monday morning he didn't come to work, but no one pursued it since other employees were
on board, and the bosses let his absence slide.
Tuesday morning, he also missed work. Our boss called his family. Either family or police went
to his apartment where they found him dead of a self-inflicted shotgun blast.
He was last seen alive on either Friday or Saturday night, so his apartment must have been quite
a sight by Tuesday morning.
Why did he do it? Depressed due to a bad blood sugar level? Down on himself since he had a nice
fiance, but was stepping out with other gals? We'll never know.

2. A 42 year old man, former inlaw of mine, had cancer and was hurting badly from the cancer +
the chemotherapy. One day his wife and the children left for the store. When they came back,
they found him dead of a self-inflicted wound from a .22 caliber firearm.
He was an only child. His parents lived thousands of miles away. The parents went into an
enormous period of depression. It was awful.

**************************************************************************************************************************

What's really scary is that when anyone is on anti-depressants, sometimes they get more depressed
than would be expected. Suicide may be the result.

I have seen it stated that people commit suicide when they do not see any hope for their life.
It's too bad that they can't have the philosophy that "THIS TOO SHALL PASS."

RIP all suicides, whether they be from civilian depression or military-related PTSD.

SIA

[rotor]

If you could magically reduce suicide by gun would that reduce suicide? I remember years ago a person that drank a quart of Weed be Gone to kill himself. He miraculously lived after months of intensive hospital treatment only to finish the job by some other method.
Obviously there is suicide for medical reasons... pain, terminal cancer, etc. Kevorkian Rx sounds more humane.
I think the difference between different methods of suicide is that those that use firearms are really trying and those that use sleeping pills perhaps are trying, perhaps not. I don't know that one can stop the serious ones, the what is it?? 30,000 a year that kill themselves with guns.

[MeMelYup]

If they actually wanted to reduce suicide and other problems with firearms, they would start teaching firearm safety is school. Start in kindergarten and teach clear through high school, firearm safety and handling. Have state sanctioned competitions and state championships. To go along with this they need better counseling in the schools. Not just academic counseling but life counseling. Teach the kids that they are worth something and not just a commodity to push through. Look at some of the university's today, you can't say anything without being in the proper zone. Some professors don't approve of free thinking in the classroom, "If you disagree with me keep your mouth shut."
These are subjects that are "micro triggers" to me.