Firearms are used in more than half of Nevada suicides. To help reduce that statistic, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention looked to a New Hampshire program that educates gun store owners to identify customers who may be suicidal. “I think it would be beneficial. How effective? We would have to wait and see,” said Ron Reyes of Las Vegas' Discount Firearms and Ammo, LLC. “I think every range in town has experienced a situation like this.”
The state office has begun to offer suicide awareness training to interested gun store owners, employees, and gun owners in partnership with the Nevada Firearms Coalition. Nevada has the nation's fourth-highest suicide rate, about 20.3 suicides for every 100,000 people. In the Silver State, suicide is the sixth- leading cause of death, according to the most recent available statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 53 percent of the 547 Nevada suicides in 2010 involved firearms. “The gun community is just one more avenue to reach out to organizations and invite them to take the training,” said Richard Egan, suicide prevention training and outreach facilitator. “It's just one more way … to utilize that community to reduce the suicide rate.”