Can Gun Stores Play a Role in Suicide Prevention?

Hawaii is one of the states with strongest gun laws and lowest gun death rates. A study found that states with stricter gun control laws, ammo regulation, background checks, and reporting of lost firearms had the lowest injury rates.

The U.S. continues to experience mass shootings, and many Americans deny that tightening gun laws will help. However, countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Norway have reduced gun violence through stricter regulations.

Colombia has attempted to decrease murder and homicide rates by setting up curfews for teenagers, forcing bars to close earlier in the evening, and creating gun laws to prevent the carrying of weapons. As a result of this epidemiological, data-driven approach, along with other governmental factors, the homicide rate has decreased significantly in most of the cities in which it was implemented.

With pressures of depression, anxiety, and suicide on the rise, teenagers in the United States are challenged to find the comfortable outlet and accessibility for emotional support. The Crisis Text Line offers a counseling service through mobile texting, which reduces the shame that can occur when approaching an in-person counselor, and expands access to professional mental health counseling nationwide.

The city of Trenton is trying to reduce gun violence. In Philadelphia, the Healing Hurt People is a hospital-based violence intervention program that employs trauma counselors to help patients suffering from gun violence.

Suicide rates are rising in the U.S. The Henry Ford Health System in Detroit reduced suicide rates within their insurance plan by 80 percent by actively seeking at risk patients. They screen every hospital patient on every visit and immediately treat those in need.

Richmond, California ranked among the highest homicide rates in the country. The city created the Office of Neighborhood Safety to engage the community in the effort to curb gun violence and prevent homicides. ONS works directly with the young people who are at risk and have succeeded in reducing the homicide rate.

More than 800,000 people worldwide, including about 40,000 Americans, die by suicide each year. Colorado is pushing to prevent suicides by promoting awareness and changing laws to help those at risk.

A program in Philadelphia is pioneering new ways to treat the urban wounded. By seeing it as PTSD, and not pointing fingers, the city is using mental health tools to decrease violence and heal communities.

In Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, an organization called Save Our Streets Crown Heights (S.O.S.) is taking steps to disrupt violence. The organization is modeled after Chicago's violence interrupters, which employ people from the neighborhood to connect with those most at-risk and disrupt conflicts and retalitory violence.