VA suicide prevention efforts need more focus on gun safety training

| November 18, 2022

Here we go again. The VA is said to need to spend more energy on talking about gun safety training to combat veteran suicides? If there’s one group of people you don’t need to waste time on gun safety with, it’s a group of veterans. Every single veteran has already received firearms safety training in some form or another. Even those sorta vets like Dan Rather got some firearms knowledge.

Military Times says a VA-OIG report says that the people actually working in the VA realize it’s all bullshit;

Despite promises to prioritize lethal means safety in their suicide prevention efforts, Veterans Affairs officials aren’t focusing enough on the issue, according to new findings released Thursday by a government watchdog.

The problems outlined in a new VA inspector general report included clinicians not completing training on firearms safety, clinicians not using the training in appointments with patients, and administrators not reinforcing the importance of the issue with follow-up training and guidance.

“Given the prevalence of firearm-related suicidal behavior among veterans and the effectiveness of diminished access to firearms in the reduction of suicide, suicide risk assessment and safety planning should include both firearms access and discussion of safe storage,” the report stated.

“Failure to adequately assess firearms access and discuss safe storage of firearms may contribute to a failure to promote distance between the patient and access to firearms as a means of suicide.”

Yeah, because if everyone at the VA is asking you a ton of questions about your firearms, you’re gonna tell the truth. A combat vet with PTSD that needs a gun under the pillow to sleep at night won’t have a lot of trust fostered by a clinician telling him to lock his security blanket up in a gun safe.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Dumbass Bullshit, Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues

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Anonymous

Nobody killed themselves intentionally because they didn’t know how to use their weapon effectively.

My, My, My

We’re with the government and we’re to help.

Graybeard

We gotta quit asking “How stupid can they be?” They are taking it as a challenge.

Andy11M

I get the feeling that some folks at the VA have been getting hounded by both Congress and the public to “do something” about vet suicide and they sat in some conference room spitballing and this was one of the ideas they scrawled across a dry erase board along with a few other useless ideas, threw it into a power point and presented it and got it approved.

RGR 4-78

It sounds like, once again, that the DoVA elite are too insulated from their user base, that they don’t have a clue (or care) what is really needed. 😡 

Anonymous

Just ask ol’ Shinsucki.

Skivvy Stacker

I’ve had more questions asked about my firearms, and my ownership of said firearms, by the VA than I have ever been by any other government, or state agency.
Even a Sheriff’s Deputy checked my ID and Permit while letting me keep my pistol on me; indicating that he was well aware of the fact that Permit Holders are the least likely people to commit crimes in this country.

TopGoz

When a doctor, especially a doctor from the government, (or anybody else for that matter) asks how many guns you have the only correct response is, “None of your business.”

Jay

I just ask the prescribed line of questioning these days:

“What’s a gun?”

Jay

So a pop tart bitten into the shape of a gun. Check. I got plenty of those.

Green Thumb

Yeah.

I was asked that question last year on a routine primary provider physician appointment by the nurse.

Told her I bought one (1) for my spouse’s personal protection years past for when I am gone and it stays in the safe at the house when I am home – only comes out when I am away.

She knew I was full of shit, but seemed satisfied that it would be enough to “check the block”.

Jay

Theyve asked me ONE TIME. I told them I had enough of cleaning and maintaining over 20 years of service, I get sick at the smell of cleaning solution. Nurse rolled her eyes but moved on.

A Proud Infidel®️™️

More people died from Fentanyl last year than from guns and traffic crashes combined, BUT OH NOOOOO, guns are the entire problem, just ask any Moonbat politician or bureaucrat.

Roh-Dog

Different means, same root cause.

Roh-Dog

Despite promises to prioritize lethal means safety in their suicide prevention efforts, Veterans Affairs officials aren’t focusing enough on the issue

I don’t know, or care to find out, what the fuck this sentence means but those scum sucking mother fucking losers-at-life at the Veterans Despairs should stick to reusing colonoscopy equipment without adequate cleaning (look THAT up) and losing C&P paperwork for multiple Presidential terms.

Get fucked, die angry, you VA suckers of gangrenous penises.

TopGoz

Don’t hold back, Roh-Dog… Tell us how you really feel.

CWORet

Think our ‘Dog might need a gentle hug (from behind).

JOKE!!!

Green Thumb

Dumb.

But then again, a lot of Vet groups are still pushing the 22-a-day narrative. And it is still this same groups that take VA healthcare and disability/benefits.

So no real surprise here.

KoB

I don’t suffer from the PTSofD and I don’t sleep with a firearm under my pillow (damn a lumpy pillow). But I do have a coupla within six inches of my pillow on the night stand.

I would like to spend some energy with that Little Miss Ginger on training my “gun”.

Prior Service

My daughter (who knows I own weapons) recently asked if I ever kept guns in the home for home safety reasons. I was suspicious that she was filling out some forms with that question on it so I told her no, I keep them just because I like shooting. Turns out she was considering buying me one of those slick under the dash/under the table pistol mounts.

5JC

Accidental gun suicides are pretty rare. I only know of one confirmed case of a suicide that was accidental due to poor safety, by a guy who really, really should have known better. Alcohol is yet again the great equalizer and take down of skill and training.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/navy-seal-shoots-self-with-gun-believed-unloaded/

SgtBob

I read this after reading a few Duffle Blog pieces, and, well, you know.