Gun rules may prevent suicides

With the NRA ramping up the rhetoric and gun rights advocates now carrying guns to the Roundhouse, some legislators may feel that supporting gun safety measures is not worth the damage to their political careers. Some even call it “political suicide.”

But there is a related issue at stake that is more ominous. It is real suicides with handguns. This is a public health concern that deserves as much attention, if not more, than homicides with guns.

Here in New Mexico, we have one of the highest suicide rates in the country, especially among young people, who often act on impulses — with tragically irreversible consequences when guns are involved. In 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available, New Mexico had 303 firearm deaths; 220 of these were suicides.

Some of those who died would be alive today if a gun had not been available. Suicide is alarmingly common. It can happen in any family, including yours or mine.

But we can begin to do something to prevent the needless loss of life that results from gun violence in its many forms. Strategies to prevent gun violence must include adequate mental health care and controls on gun sales, including background checks for mental illness, convictions for domestic violence and other crimes of violence.

These checks are currently not uniformly conducted at gun shows, the sites of gun purchases for many. This is a loophole that would be closed by the passage of House Bill 77, now pending in the New Mexico Senate. There is evidence that background checks reduce suicides as well as homicides.

Since the impulse to commit suicide may pass in a matter of hours or a few days, delaying access to a gun for people who do not already own one can be life-saving. This can be accomplished by a waiting period or a requirement for gun safety training before taking possession of a newly purchased gun.

Most firearm suicides are with handguns rather than long-guns (rifles and shotguns). Therefore, limiting or delaying access to handguns may have special benefit in reducing suicides. For a suicidal individual who lives in a household with guns, safe gun storage, with guns and ammunition stored and locked separately, can reduce suicide risk.

When a gun is not available, a suicidal person may attempt suicide with another method, but when that method is less lethal, such as drug overdose, the chance of survival is greater, providing an opportunity for mental health interventions. Most people who survive a suicide attempt do not later die by suicide. Effective gun safety policies will reduce impulsive suicides and save lives.

Measures to restrict access to handguns are needed now, before more lives are unnecessarily lost. HB 77 does not address all firearm safety issues, but it has a coalition of bipartisan supporters that gives me hope that we can find a way forward while respecting Second Amendment rights.

For the survivors of suicide, and the parents and loved ones of those murdered with guns too easily obtained, I implore our elected officials to act now to address this important public health concern. Please support HB 77.