Cryan Bill Would Create Suicide Prevention Program

Plan Would Focus on Firearms

TRENTON – Legislation authored by Senator Joe Cryan that would establish a suicide-prevention program for firearms retailers and firing ranges gained the approval of a Senate committee today. The bill, S-2545, would have the Attorney General work  in consultation with the Commissioner of Health to establish a suicide prevention course curriculum and suicide prevention informational materials for retail dealers who sell firearms or operate a firing range in the state.

“There extra risks posed to people prone to suicide who also have easy access to a gun,” said Senator Cryan, D-Union. “Because guns are incredibly lethal, they are responsible for more than half of all suicide deaths. More people in this country kill themselves with guns than with all other intentional means combined. Guns are an irreversible solution to what is often a passing crisis.”

In New Jersey and throughout the country, people are more than twice as likely to kill themselves with a firearm than be killed by someone else, Senator Cryan noted. On average, nearly 700 New Jersey residents commit suicide annually, according to the state Department of Health and the most common method of suicide is firearms.

Since 2008, suicide’s been the 10th-leading cause of death for all ages across the country.

The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 47,000 Americans took their own lives in 2017, representing a 33 percent jump in suicide in nearly 20 years. New Jersey has experienced an overall increase in suicide, with 7.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2016, suicide was the 14th-leading cause of death in the Garden State.

Under the bill, approved by the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, the Attorney General would notify dealers of the curriculum, and the training course would be provided by the Department of Law and Public Safety in a classroom setting or on a website.

The materials would contain information on how to prevent firearms from being accessible to friends or family members in crisis, including methods to recognize signs of suicidal tendencies, suicide intervention strategies and information on available community services and counseling programs developed to prevent suicide. These would be required to be accessible to consumers at each retail purchase counter.

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