The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an increase in suicides in every state except Nevada between 1999 and 2016 — with the most common method being firearms. In Minnesota, which saw over a 40-percent increase in suicides, there’s debate over allowing the courts to take weapons out of the hands of people judged a danger to themselves or others, but a bill at the legislature got tangled up in the dispute over Second Amendment rights and didn’t pass.
Sue Abderholden with the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota says there have been discussions about a voluntary registry: “Perhaps their mental health professional, treating professional would say, put yourself on that list, because the only reason you would purchase a gun is to take your own life,” Abderholden says.
But D-F-L Representative Dave Pinto from Saint Paul, who sponsored the so-called “Red Flag” bill says, “Makes sense for there to be some additional process, because somebody might not be in the frame of mind where they would do that voluntary relinquishment.”
More in this interview with Abderholden:
And Pinto: