Pentagon Committee Recommends Private Firearm Restrictions for Service Members, Personnel Policy Reform to Prevent Military Suicides

[Reptile]

Reforming the military up-and-out personnel system, guaranteeing pay and reimbursements for troops and limiting access of younger service members to firearms top a list of recommendations from an independent group of researchers tasked to help reduce suicides in the Department of Defense that were released Friday.


The Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee released its final report, containing 127 recommendations, of which 23 received high prioritization, for reducing suicide in the military. Among the recommendations are several involving owning firearms and reforms to the military’s promotion system, researchers told reporters on Friday.


While the panel recommended a wide swath of reforms, the researchers keyed on reducing easy access to firearms for those at risk for suicide as the most productive action the military could take in the short term.


“When we look at the science of suicide prevention, there’s arguably only one thing that all researchers agree on,” Craig Bryan, a psychiatry professor at the Ohio State University and an Air Force veteran, told reporters during a press call ahead of the report’s release Friday.
“And that one thing is that taking steps to slow down convenient access to highly lethal methods, like firearms, is the single most effective strategy for saving lives.”


The panel singled out death by firearm in their research as to its level of lethality compared to other methods like a drug overdose.


“And so this was a common refrain in our site visits was that the military personnel wanted to encourage a culture of secure firearm storage and also to reduce convenient access to firearm acquisition, especially for those who are in acutely elevated distress,” Bryan said.


SPRIRC recommended raising the minimum purchase age for firearms and ammunition to 25 on Department of Defense properties.


Looking at military suicide statistics, about half of suicides are among service members who are between 17 and 25 years old, he said. Targeting that age group is one way to reduce suicides. Between the firearms and suicide statistics, 25 was the best age to recommend as the earliest someone could purchase a firearm at an on-base exchange, he said.

Continues...

Pentagon Committee Recommends Private Firearm Restrictions for Service Members, Personnel Policy Reform to Prevent Military Suicides - USNI News

Reforming the military up-and-out personnel system, guaranteeing pay and reimbursements for troops and limiting access of younger service members to firearms top a list of recommendations from an independent group of researchers tasked to help reduce suicides in the Department of Defense that...

news.usni.org

 

[Asaltweapon]

This country is f***ed with these woke pricks running the show.

 

[milktree]

“And so this was a common refrain in our site visits was that the military personnel wanted to encourage a culture of secure firearm storage and also to reduce convenient access to firearm acquisition, especially for those who are in acutely elevated distress,” Bryan said.

I’m just spitballing here, but isn’t it a much larger problem that there are so many soldiers who are in acutely elevated distress?

Maybe fix that problem and the suicide problem goes away. (And you have a healthy and more effective military that requires less mental health care)

 

[Devils Paintbrush]

I was looking at this yesterday. After poking around for a little while, I found a JAMA report that did a study on Army deaths from before the Mexican-American war.

Every life is precious, but the suicide rates have been much higher at other times.

This stinks of typical military that if it can't be controlled, it has to be taken away. I had a Charlie Oscar that everyone would have taken a shot at if they could have got away with it.

Those rates are based on 100,000 soldiers.

 

[carbuncle]

The answer is always restricing access to guns.

 

[Hailstorm]

So, instead of figuring out why the members are killing themselves. They want to do this. Removing rights from the members. If you live on base. You already have to store the guns in the armory. Off base, you live like a real person....

 

[whacko]

I’m just spitballing here, but isn’t it a much larger problem that there are so many soldiers who are in acutely elevated distress?

Maybe fix that problem and the suicide problem goes away. (And you have a healthy and more effective military that requires less mental health care)

Good luck. The age group that suicide is highest is the youngest.....your dealing with a generation and age group that just isn't prepared to mentally handle adversity......I'm not even talking about adversity in combat......I'm talking about simple life skills. You take these kids that grew up in a world where all has to be fair......equal.....and all stress is bad.....and put them in a military environment......even a training environment.......and many just can't deal with it. Many of the suicides we were seeing before I retired weren't even soldiers that had been to combat.....some were..... you'd think that the majority of suicides were among combat vets.....and that's not the case.

 

[milktree]

Good luck. The age group that suicide is highest is the youngest.....your dealing with a generation and age group that just isn't prepared to mentally handle adversity......I'm not even talking about adversity in combat......I'm talking about simple life skills. You take these kids that grew up in a world where all has to be fair......equal.....and all stress is bad.....and put them in a military environment......even a training environment.......and many just can't deal with it. Many of the suicides we were seeing before I retired weren't even soldiers that had been to combat.....some were..... you'd think that the majority of suicides were among combat vets.....and that's not the case.

Maybe we should raise the minimum age for military service to 25.

 

[MaverickNH]

This could easily drift towards restricting veterans from legal firearms ownership (again), perhaps more broadly. I’d say, implement every other measure first and see how it helps before restricting firearms. As in the civilian world, we’d find that failures in implementing such measures effectively drive a major proportion of suicides.

Substitute the military chain of command, health services and peers in the military for parents, teachers, coworkers, health services, supervisors, etc., in the civilian world that drop the ball. Failures of implementation and responsibility limit reduction in the proximate causes for suicides - "convenient" access to firearms is just a component.

 

[whacko]

Maybe we should raise the minimum age for military service to 25.

Maybe we should nit be raising a generation of f***ing pussies.

 

[Dadstoys]

Because lord knows there is no other way on a military base to kill yourself other than a personal firearm.
Come on giant meteor , we're rooting for you.

 

[whacko]

Because lord knows there is no other way on a military base to kill yourself other than a personal firearm.
Come on giant meteor , we're rooting for you.

Sad story. 2013 our unit supply sergeant took his life right in the arms vault about 2 hours before 1st formation. Used a government m4 and store bought 5.56.

 

[SFC13557]

Typical DOD/Pentagon over reaction study. Back in the late 90's DOD was alarmed by motorcycle deaths/injuries to young military personal so they mandated that to ride on base all personal were mandated to take either the MSF basic or advanced rider courses. I worked on Hanscom for LL so the AF contracted with Ironstone Ventures to come on base and set up the courses. They paid so I took the Experienced course and later became an Instructor. Don't know if the training worked but 9/11 stopped the courses.

 

[Waher]

Making troops sit through thousands of hours of PowerPoint slide decks on absurd topics like pronouns surely has nothing to do with troops deciding suicide is less painful than continued duty.
#DeathByPowerPoint

 

[Picton]

Uhhhhhhhhh... they're aware many (if not most) soldiers are under 25? And that they have plenty of access to firearms, plus training on how to use them?

I know they don't mean issued rifles, but if you can't trust Joe with his own gun, should you really be trusting him with the government's gun? And Joe has always been required to keep his personal firearm locked up in the arms room, at least since the early '90s. So, in theory, he already does not have "easy access to his own gun."

Unless he lives outside the barracks, I suppose?

 

[MisterHappy]

Easy answer > difficult answer, even if Easy answer is not the correct one.

 

[cams]

So, instead of figuring out why the members are killing themselves. They want to do this. Removing rights from the members. If you live on base. You already have to store the guns in the armory. Off base, you live like a real person....

I’ll have to guess there’s independent rules around this as set by an individuals chain of command. My unit only allowed E-5 and above to live off post if you were not married and you’re still subject to random inspections for the first year.

 

[ffej ruedorb]

Because suicide by firearm is the only way that one can shake loose his own mortal coil

 

[TJ4]

If they’re going to start restricting based on increased risk of suicide, then they need to do so for every trans person because they have an extremely elevated level of suicide when compared to the general population:

Suicidality Among Transgender Youth: Elucidating the Role of Interpersonal Risk Factors - PubMed

Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth. Using minority stress theory and the interpersonal theory of suicide, this study aims to better understand suicide risk among...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Also, women with breast implants:

Cosmetic breast augmentation and suicide - PubMed

The higher-than-expected suicide rate among women with cosmetic breast implants warrants further research. In the absence of additional information on the relationship, women interested in breast augmentation who present with a history of psychopathology or those who are suspected by the plastic...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[426wedge]

When I was in Basic At Fort Gordon back in'66,one of the guys was missing at lights out.They searched around the barracks area, but no sign of him. Anyway, the next day we were going to the range with our M14s and the drill instructors found the guy on the path. He had managed to get a rifle out of the armory and did himself in. I remember the guy as kind of a puss. He was not handling the military life very well. I don't know any other details on this...

 

[Admin]

Uhhhhhhhhh... they're aware many (if not most) soldiers are under 25? And that they have plenty of access to firearms, plus training on how to use them?

I know they don't mean issued rifles, but if you can't trust Joe with his own gun, should you really be trusting him with the government's gun? And Joe has always been required to keep his personal firearm locked up in the arms room, at least since the early '90s. So, in theory, he already does not have "easy access to his own gun."

Unless he lives outside the barracks, I suppose?

That is why this whole thing is a joke and clearly isn't about preventing suicides.