A meeting took place last week in Aurora on the medial campus of the University of Colorado. It was a gathering of experts, community leaders, organizational representatives and members of the firearm and ammunition industry.

Over 40 people met, for the second time now, for the NSSF/VA LMS Roundtable. What is LMS, you ask? LMS stands for Lethal Means Safety, and ‘lethal means safety’ in suicide prevention terms involves making a lethal method less available and less likely to cause death in a suicide attempt. The goal is to make suicide methods – or means – more difficult to access when someone is at risk for suicide.

If you mentally stumble over that three word phrase you’re not the only one, so welcome to the George Orwell Semantics Club.

But, if you google the term you’ll find your way immediately to the suicide prevention help line and resources. One of the first links you’ll see it that to the Veterans Affairs site addressing ‘Lethal Means Safety & Suicide Prevention.’

For obvious reasons, the Department of Veterans Affairs is leading the charge in studying suicides among our military and veterans to find the best courses of prevention. We’ve all heard, or should have heard by now, the statistic of 22 a day, which references the number of veterans, active-duty troops, guardsmen and reservists combined that die by suicide each day.

It’s an alarming figure, as it should be. But simply repeating that stat, wearing a t-shirt referencing it, or posting it on social media, while creating awareness of the problem doesn’t actually address the problem.

That’s where the NSSF/VA Roundtable comes in. Led by Joe Bartozzi, the president and CEO of NSSF, the firearm industry has joined the effort to address suicide prevention and safe storage of firearms.

NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi addresses the assembled roundtable participants, at least a third of which were from the firearm and ammunition industry. Photo by P. Erhardt

The industry has already been the driving force behind reducing accidental deaths by firearms in the home through the industry’s Project ChildSafe. Thanks to the education efforts and distribution of free firearm safety kits – think free cable-style gun locks – NSSF is not new to the safe storage effort. NSSF founded Project ChildSafe back in 1999, so they have been working on this issue, formally, for the last 24 years, and with excellent results.

So when Joe Bartozzi connected with Dr. Matt Miller, Executive Director of Suicide Prevention for the Office of Mental Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs, to help the VA address the issue of suicide prevention, he and the industry already had a solid track record of limiting access to firearms – the lethal means – through proper and effective safe storage.

You may ask why firearms are such a focus point in suicide prevention. That’s easy. Dr. Miller noted in his opening remarks that “veterans die at a higher rate by suicide than their non-veteran peers.” The fact is that 70% of veteran suicides are by firearm while the number is 50% for non-veterans. And it’s 50% overall.

Sitting in the auditorium listening to the VA’s experts who have been researching suicide prevention it quickly became clear that there is no single cause behind a suicide attempt and there is no single one-size-fits-all approach to combatting the issue.

Instead, to reduce suicides among veterans and the general public takes a patchwork approach. There are a number of factors that enter the equation but there is one stat that really speaks to the importance of safe storage.

Dr. Emmy Betz, Professor, Emergency Medicine at the Colorado University School of Medicine, explained how having a firearm locked up, off the premises, or stored with a family friend can dramatically impact a suicide attempt.

She pointed out that the final decision to attempt suicide often occurs within only minutes, and it’s getting the person through this short period of high risk where safe storage plays a key role. Putting time between an individual and the means to commit suicide means the difference between keeping a friend or family member or losing them forever.

Dr. Betz noted that the reason pills are now provided in blister packs is because it makes it harder to take too many when having to work your way through the whole blister pack. In other words, it puts time between the person in crisis and the act of attempting suicide.

NSSF brought a lot of help to the fight to advance the VA’s work on suicide prevention. Among those from the industry sitting in the room were representatives from Sig Sauer, Vista Outdoor, Glock, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Hornady, NSSF, Bass Pro Shops, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Bristlecone Shooting Training & Retail Center, USCCA, Leupold, Ruger and Walk The Talk America.

They were joined by those from other groups and organizations including American Legion, Hold My Guns, Overwatch Project, Disabled American Veterans, Forefront Suicide Prevention and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

After going around the room for introductions it became very clear that those in attendance weren’t there for the feel good aspect of helping veterans, or scoring ‘good guy points’ on social media. No, they were there because nearly all of them have dealt with suicide in their immediate circle of friend, family and colleagues.

It is a real good group that the VA and NSSF have brought together. They are serious people working together, sharing ideas, and finding out what works and why. They do so in order to tackle one of the most heartbreaking aspects of our society. And each deserves our thanks and our support.

— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network