NEBRASKA: Local Gun Range Partners with Suicide Coalition on Prevention
October 06, 2016
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Suicide Prevention Coalition is partnering with BigShots, a local gun range and firearms retailer, on suicide prevention efforts. The Coalition and gun shop have collaborated to make suicide prevention awareness materials available to customers, and together they plan to distribute 85 lock boxes to handgun owners with the hope that they might deter individuals in distress from attempting suicide. Coalition Co-Chair Rose Hood Buss said, “We’re not saying, ‘Don’t have guns.’ Just lock them up. That time between accessing the means and carrying it [a suicidal act] out is so important.” Following an increase in suicide deaths among young people in the area, the Coalition was created in 2014. It has worked to address suicide in a variety of capacities, such as posting suicide prevention signage at sites where people have jumped, providing gatekeeper training to community members, integrating social and emotional skills-building in school curricula, and spearheading a youth outreach awareness campaign. “The message of suicide prevention is centered around hope,” Hood Buss said. “There is hope.”
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