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Republicans are blocking a policy that could solve the suicide crises in their states

Republicans are blocking a policy that could solve the suicide crises in their states

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In Natrona county, Wyomingthe Platte River runs along Casper Mountain, with its thick forests and stunning views, and each year the local coroner compiles data into a package called “Suicide Report.” Its mere existence implies that an area of ​​natural beauty and splendor is battling an unnatural and unrelenting epidemic.

On Oct. 1, Coroner James Whipps, a large, balding man with glasses and a beard, sat before the Natrona County Board of County Commissioners in a brightly lit courtroom. He didn’t have good news. “In the last two months since I last spoke to you, we’ve had nine suicides, and that brings our county total to 24 for the year,” he said. His voice was sober and honest, like a small-town sheriff describing an unsolved violent crime. “We still have three months left in the year, and if the last two months are any indication, we’re going to set a record that was worse than the one we set in 2021.”

According to Whipps’ data, 18 of the 24 suicides were committed with a firearm, a slice of a statewide trend. Last year, 75 percent of Wyoming’s suicides involved guns, and the state had the highest rate of gun suicides in the country. However, in March, one-party Republican control of Wyoming enacted a law specifically banning red flag statutes, which have been passed in 21 states. Red flag laws allow family members and law enforcement officials to go before a judge and argue that a person should be temporarily disarmed because they pose an imminent risk to themselves or others.

Dallas Laird, an eager and gentle 78-year-old commissioner, addressed the room. “Last week, the son of one of my best friends shot and killed himself,” he said. “A boy I’ve known all my life. And his mother is in Europe and his sister called me and cried – I can hardly understand her.” The boy, named Ryan, called him Uncle Dallas. He continued, “I never know what to say.”

“I haven’t called his mother yet,” he added. “Because I’m texting him, I’m like, ‘I’ll do it when I know what to say. I just don’t know what to say.”

Not long ago, red flag laws were widely touted as a bipartisan solution to gun violence. both Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association had supported them. But then the laws became the centerpiece of reform for the Biden administration, and a backlash from Second Amendment groups and the far right ensued. As of 2020, four Republican-controlled states, including Wyoming, have implemented a ban on such laws. The other three – OklahomaWest Virginia and Tennessee — are also consistently among the states with the highest gun suicide rates in the country, according to data provided by Cassandra Crifasi, an epidemiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University.

For red-flag opponents, banning or fighting statutes was embraced as a just cause. There are false claims of misuse and alleged due process and Second Amendment violations. Nathan Dahm, the state senator who sponsored Oklahoma’s anti-red flag bill, told me he was protecting his constituents from government encroachment. A year before Dahm introduced his bill, records show, a colleague of his, who was 53, sat in a chair in his office and, using one of his 15 handguns, shot himself in the chest. Last year, Oklahoma had the sixth highest gun suicide rate in the country. “Everybody dies,” Dahm said, when pressed about the relationship between firearms and suicide. “That’s life.” When it comes to the liberties he believes he protects, he added: “I’m not going to say it’s a valid or acceptable compromise or anything like that. But they will all die.”

The fight over red flag laws is fueled by political tribalism. Before West Virginia instituted the red flag ban, documents obtained through a public records request show that state delegates received auto-generated emails with the subject line “OPPOSES RED FLAG GUN LAWS.”

“Gun control groups tricked and shamed legislators into passing these laws,” the emails said, claiming they were on a “mission to enforce” the West Virginia statute. One delegate responded, “I too share your concerns about red flag gun laws. I will resist any such attempts and keep 2when modification rights.”

This year, Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, announced the formation of a “red flag” resource center that will be housed within the Department of Justice and help states, municipalities and law enforcement make the most of the statute . . In response, the West Virginia state attorney general’s office led an effort to undermine the initiative. He wrote a letter of protest to DOJ chief Merrick Garland and sent it to other Republican attorneys general in various states. Emails obtained through additional public records requests show an employee of the West Virginia AG’s office implored them to join the protest, writing, “National gun rights organizations have been heavily critical of the center since it was announced.”

The attorney general for the Iowa attorney general’s office said the state was “thrilled” to sign on, but asked for a modification. He objected to a sentence in the letter that said, “Little reliable evidence suggests that red flag laws have any real effect on gun violence.”

“Is it possible to replace the phrase ‘gun violence’ with ‘gun crime’?” asked the solicitor general. “Guns don’t commit crimes, people do.” The term “gun violence,” he explained, is “hostile.” In the end, the reference was simply dropped, and the letter was signed by 19 states.

Tens of thousands of lives are lost each year to gun suicide, which is the cause of the majority of gun deaths in America. Research has repeatedly shown that taking one’s own life is often a impulsive act and that the ideation period that precedes it is limited in time. Gaining access to a firearm during that window almost always results in a fatal outcome.

A 2022 study published in Injury prevention, examined the effectiveness of California’s red light law during its first three years of implementation, from 2016 to 2018. About 41 percent of the cases reviewed involved self-harm, and in no case did a person die by gun-suicide after their guns. have been temporarily removed. Another red flag study, published this year in the JJournal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Lawreviewed nearly 3,000 cases from four states that contained a documented suicidal concern. It was estimated that for every 13 orders issued, one death was prevented.

WHEN RYAN WAS LITTLE, he had taken his first steps at Laird, the Natrona County Commissioner. As Ryan grew up, he played hockey and rode bulls and four-wheelers. It seemed to vibrate with energy, but it also carried an ever-expanding sadness that grew until there was little room left for anything else.

Laird imagined Ryan’s mind as a haunted house; new residents were always moving in. Ryan tried to subdue them with alcohol and drugs. His obituary said that life “was unbearably painful for him at times. He felt overwhelmed.” When Ryan was arrested, Laird, a lawyer, helped him with his legal problems, just as he had helped Ryan’s father in 1978, when the father accidentally shot and killed a woman with his gun. Ryan used the same gun on him.

Sitting among the commissioners, Laird felt despair. He looked in front of him, resting his face on his fist. He had worried about Ryan and wondered if he might hurt himself one day. “If you were talking to a young man…” Laird said before trailing off. He began to cry, his ragged breathing amplified by the microphone. He was still in his seat, but seemed to slump forward. “And was he thinking about killing himself? What would you say to him?”

At this stage in his life, Laird finds himself crying often. He wonders if it’s his age, or if there’s just too much to cry about, or maybe it’s a mixture of the two. Ryan was loved and yet he didn’t seem to believe it. How could that be? What is happening in his community? He believes most families don’t know what to do when someone is in crisis or can’t afford therapy. Guns are everywhere, woven into the fabric of rural American culture. Moose and elk hunting is a tradition that connects one generation to another. Children are taught to shoot. Notions of self-protection and what it means to stand guard over your family have become like a religious creed, even when the real danger tends to lurk within.

Laird believes that too many people feel like they’re not going anywhere, and that feeling goes to the soul, infects it, until the day comes when they pick up a firearm. In Wyoming, over 85% of gun deaths are suicides.

As the Natrona County meeting progressed, Laird said, “So, let me see if I can fine-tune this a little bit better. If you were me and knew this boy all your life… She was crying again, the words stuck in her throat. He forced them out, his voice strained. “What would you say to his mother? What would you actually say to him? Because I don’t know what to say to him!” Laird then stood up and left the room.

Three weeks later, he had breakfast at a small restaurant in Casper called Sherrie’s Place, a longtime favorite among locals. The sun was out and the weather was still quite warm. Laird saw a state lawmaker and his wife sitting in a booth. Suicide and what could be done about it were still on his mind.

“If a kid is threatening to kill himself,” he asked, “why shouldn’t we take his guns away from him?”

“You know, Dallas,” he said, “I don’t think we can pass a law like that.”

“Well, what should we do?”

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The parliamentarian did not have an answer. In the weeks since the commissioners met in court, there have been three more suicides in Natrona County, two of them involving a firearm. The total number of suicides was now 27. There are over two months left in the year, enough time to set a new record.

Dial 988 in the US to reach National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Find other international suicide helplines at Befrienders Worldwide (befrienders.org).