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U.S. NEWS Monday 27 February 2023
Panel: Military needs gun safety measures to limit suicides

By LOLITA C. BALDOR us are tired of our friends
Associated Press and loved ones dying and
WASHINGTON (AP) — The we recognize that we have
Defense Department to absolutely take on this is-
should implement a series sue.”
of gun safety measures He said the choice of age
to reduce suicides in the 25 was driven by historical
force, an independent patterns and data, which
committee recommended showed that half of all mili-
Friday, calling for waiting tary suicides happened
periods for the purchase of between the ages of 21
firearms and ammunition and 25, and that the use of
by service members on mili- guns for suicides by service
tary property. members — particularly
The panel said the depart- men — increased after the
ment should also raise the age of 21.
minimum age for service The panel also concluded
members to buy guns and that alcohol use and finan-
ammunition to 25, and cial problems are often
should also require anyone connected to suicides. As
living in military housing to a result, it recommended
register all privately owned the department fix pay sys-
firearms. In addition, the tems to avoid delays, and
panel said the department A handgun is displayed for sale on June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, N.Y. address excessive alcohol
should restrict the posses- Associated Press use.
sion and storage of private- ize its suicide prevention Confirming findings in an- risk. The commission also said
ly owned firearms in military training, and take steps to nual suicide reports, the He likened the expanded the department’s “com-
barracks and dorms. address risk factors such panel noted that about gun safety measures to plex and rigid hierarchical
The report reflects increas- as alcohol use, in order to 66% of all active-duty mili- requirements that the de- structure” impedes its abil-
ing concerns about sui- address recurring spikes in tary suicides —- and more partment puts on motorcy- ity to do effective suicide
cides in the military, despite suicides. than 70% of those by Na- cle usage — such as man- prevention.
more than a decade of “Despite considerable in- tional Guard and Reserve dated helmets — that are Suicides across the ac-
programs and other ef- vestment in suicide preven- members — are done with often more strict than some tive-duty U.S. military de-
forts to prevent them and tion strategies, DOD (the firearms. It said reducing state laws. Asked how creased a bit during the 18
spur greater intervention Defense Department) has access to guns could pre- likely such changes would months from 2021 through
by commanders, friends shown an increasing trend vent some deaths. be, Bryan said he believes June 2022, driven by sharp
and family members. But over a 15-year period in Craig Bryan, a clinical psy- troops are more receptive drops in the Air Force and
gun safety and control suicide rates,” said Jerry chologist and member of to such limits than civilians Marine Corps last year and
measures are likely to face Reed, a consultant for the the Suicide Prevention and may be. a similar decline among
resistance, particularly in panel. Response Independent Re- “My sense is that so many Army soldiers during the first
Congress, where such leg- The report said the military view Committee, said the of us who have served six months of this year, ac-
islation has struggled in re- infrastructure and other sys- department should slow have lost friends to suicide. cording to a Pentagon re-
cent years. tems have not kept up with down troops’ access to And so many of those sui- port.
The committee released its the changes in technology. guns — specifically those cides involve firearms, that But those numbers show a
findings in a report Friday, All of that, it said, increases bought in stores on bases we recognize that there is dramatic reversal of what
saying the Pentagon needs stress and the risks of sui- — so people under stress a connection between the has been a fairly steady in-
to improve and modern- cide. can survive periods of high two,” said Bryan. “Many of crease in recent years.q

Cause sought in crash of medical

transport flight in Nevada

ern Nevada. The National feet (600 meters) above her house before crashing
Transportation Safety Board ground when the flight left behind her property.
has sent in a seven-mem- Reno for Salt Lake City, “I knew the plane was in
ber team of investigators Utah, and went down, ac- trouble,” Hays told the Reno
to the site of Friday night’s cording to the weather ser- Gazette Journal. “I knew it
crash near Stagecoach. vice. was going to crash. I was
The crash occurred amid a Care Flight, which pro- just hoping it wasn’t going
winter storm warning issued vides ambulance service to crash into my house.”
by the National Weather by plane and helicopter, Hays called 911 and went
Service in Reno for large identified the downed air- outside but could not see
A Care Flight medical transport plane carrying a patient and swaths of Nevada, includ- craft as a Pilatus PC-12 and the wreckage because of
four others that crashed the day before is seen Saturday, Feb. ing parts of Lyon County. It said the pilot, a flight nurse, the blowing snow.
25, 2023, in Lyon County, Nev. All five people on board were was snowing steadily with a flight paramedic, a pa- Misty Gruenemay told the
killed. winds around 20 mph (30 tient and a patient’s family newspaper that the wind
Associated Press kph) with gusts up to 30 member all died. was howling and the snow
STAGECOACH, Nev. (AP) port flight that killed all five mph (50 kph). Robin Hays, a Stagecoach blowing hard when she
— Authorities are trying to people aboard the plane, Visibility was under two resident and a former flight heard what sounded like a
determine the cause of the including a patient, in a miles (3.2 kilometers) with nurse, said she heard the whiz and a thump behind
crash of a medical trans- mountainous area in north- a cloud ceiling about 2,000 sputtering plane fly over her house in Stagecoach.q