Troops' concerns are well-founded. A few years ago, a company commander in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY, developed his own multi-faceted program that caused a big flap. He had his own policies, registration forms, etc. Believe he was requiring troops living off-post and owning private weapons to turn those weapons into the company arms room for “secure storage,” etc. Vastly exceeded both his authority and anything remotely reasonable. Troops are right to be scared of stuff like this.
As Military Suicides Rise, Focus Is On Private Weapons
By James Dao
New York Times, October 8, 2012, Pg. 13
With nearly half of all suicides in the military having been committed with privately owned firearms, the Pentagon and Congress are moving to establish policies intended to separate at-risk service members from their personal weapons.
The issue is a thorny one for the Pentagon. Gun rights advocates and many service members fiercely oppose any policies that could be construed as limiting the private ownership of firearms.
But as suicides continue to rise this year, senior Defense Department officials are developing a suicide prevention campaign that will encourage friends and families of potentially suicidal service members to safely store or voluntarily remove personal firearms from their homes.
“This is not about authoritarian regulation,” said Dr. Jonathan Woodson, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. “It is about the spouse understanding warning signs and, if there are firearms in the home, responsibly separating the individual at risk from the firearm.”
Dr. Woodson, who declined to provide details, said the campaign would also include measures to encourage service members, their friends and their relatives to remove possibly dangerous prescription drugs from the homes of potentially suicidal troops.
