March 14, 2016

In Washington state, nearly 80 percent of gun deaths are suicides. After losing her husband to suicide in 2011, UW School of Social Work Associate ProfessorJennifer Stuber started wondering how that statistic could be changed. Her husband, a 40-year-old attorney battling anxiety and depression, had shot himself with a gun he’d recently purchased. Stuber made a cold call to the National Rifle Association.

It was the beginning of an alliance between suicide prevention groups and gun advocates. They worked together to craft Washington’s Suicide Awareness and Prevention Education for Safer Homes Act. The bill develops suicide prevention training for gun dealers and owners of shooting ranges. It would add suicide prevention messages to hunter safety courses, promote education about safe firearm storage, and also uses pharmacists to talk to customers about safe storage of prescription drugs.

Source: 
The Spokesman Review