The US Department of Defense announced on Thursday that it had taken around a hundred measures to reduce the number of suicides within the army, particularly by improving security around weapons.
The hundred recommendations signed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are based on the observations of a committee that reviewed 11 military installations and conducted more than 2,700 interviews with military and civilian personnel.
According to the Pentagon, more than 500 service members and 200 of their dependents committed suicide in 2021, most of them with firearms.
“All of us at the Department of Defense must do more to prevent these tragedies,” Austin said.
The recommendations fall into five broad categories: quality of life for soldiers, mental health services, stigmatization of personnel calling for help, review of suicide prevention training and gun safety.
“Safe gun storage practices have been proven to save lives,” noted Lloyd Austin, who asserts that “nearly 70% of military personnel who commit suicide use firearms.”
The Army has decided to provide financial support for the purchase of storage equipment, integrate safe storage practices into its weapons training, and provide additional storage facilities at military bases.
However, recommendations such as setting a deadline for purchasing a firearm and ammunition and setting a minimum age of 25 for purchasing a firearm and ammunition were rejected.
Gun regulations are a sensitive issue in the United States, where the right has staunchly opposed any measure to improve control despite episodes of violence that regularly plague the country.