The Department of Veteran Affairs message is to create time and space between a crisis and action by offering free cable gun locks and more.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Suicide Prevention has launched a new suicide prevention video and updated its Keep It Secure campaign website in support of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
The Keep It Secure campaign’s mission is to promote lethal means safety by encouraging secure storage of firearms, and creating time and space between someone with thoughts of suicide and lethal means. In VA’s 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, it was reported that 73.5% of veteran suicides in 2022 were by firearms.
“A crisis can happen and what we’re trying to do is build in that little moment, that pause, that small barrier between someone at their darkest moment and having that firearm right there,” said Bobbi Hauptmann, senior director of the Suicide Prevention Communications and Actions Team for the Office of Suicide Prevention. “We have been working with NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) for years now and they’ve been instrumental in making sure we are doing things in a manner that’s going to work for the firearm community and firearm owners.”
KeepItSecure.net features several ways to share the campaign’s message of creating time and space to prevent veteran suicide. These include:
· New Face Your Dragon video featuring U.S. Marine Corps veteran Rudy Reyes, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan
· Storage options such as the cable gun locks featuring the Veteran Crisis Line number that are free and available at VA medical centers, lock boxes or gun safes.
· Social media posts and print materials to share that promote Face Your Dragon video and Keep It Secure message.
During The American Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Commission meeting in Tampa, Fla., for the 106th National Convention, Casey Woods shared how Overwatch+Project has trained over 50,000 veterans, servicemember and others to start a conversation around firearms to save lives. Read the story.
Woods is the founder and executive director of the Forge Foundation and leads the Overwatch+Project, a military and veteran suicide prevention initiative. The program provides peer-intervention training that empowers veterans to have a conversation with their friends by offering to temporarily hold onto their firearms or take safe storage measures to save lives.
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