Written by Joshua Patton,

The Army released new data on suicides for May and, continuing the trend from the numbers released in April, they are the highest to-date for 2011.  In April there were 16 potential suicides, of which only two have been confirmed while the rest remain under investigation.  For May, there were 21 potential suicides, of which only one has been confirmed and 20 which await confirmation.  However this data only covers active-duty soldiers.  Combining April and May’s data for the reserve component, there have been 17 potential suicides and only four have been confirmed.  Despite this language, it seems unlikely that any of these reported cases will be confirmed as anything other than instances of soldiers taking their own lives. 

            Laura Smith, a research intern for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has taken these numbers and compared them to a RAND Corporation report about the issue, which indicate that servicemembers are concerned both about the lingering stigma in the military for seeking mental help and the cost or availability of quality care for mental distress or injury.  Despite all of the clamor surrounding this epidemic of suicide in the military, these are very familiar reasons that many would like to think were a thing of the past. 

            The Army insists that it is working very hard to ensure that servicemembers are receiving advanced training in suicide prevention, but these numbers indicate that this training is perhaps missing the mark.  Perhaps the military and the VA cannot do it alone?  In a discussion with servicemembers and their families at a “Give an Hour” event held at the Women in Military Service for America memorial, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen suggested that public and private organizations – such as IAVA, VFW, Churches, and Community groups – are better poised to deal with troubled soldiers than the government.  Adm. Mullen’s wife Deborah also spoke, suggesting that the government needs to figure out which programs and working and cancel the ones that are not.  At the community level, people may be more able to offer help to a troubled servicemember or veteran that doesn’t think it’s worth it to ask.

            CBS News recently did a story about how military spouses are the first to recognize the effects of PTSD in a servicemember who has recently returned from deployment.  While centered around the effects of PTSD, the focus of the story was centered around 12 military wives (remarkably ignored were military husbands whose wives suffer from mental injury) and their work together at Walter Reed Medical Center.  Communication with spouses, according to The Air Force Times can either help prevent or accentuate the onset of PTSD, depending on the level of marital stress in the relationship.  While worth mentioning, that subject lies more in the wheelhouse of fellow Veteran Journal contributor Angela Caban than my own.

            What is in my wheelhouse, however, is guns.  While I don’t own any at the moment, I do love recreational shooting.  A recent editorial on Time.com’s Battleland Blogs talks about the overwhelming percentage of suicides that are carried out by firearms.  The author doesn’t call for gun control per se, but does say that it is time for the issue to be discussed.  While the author may have a point that gun safety warnings should be as prominent on military bases as motorcycle safety and warnings against drunk driving, I do think that her ultimate argument is misguided.  Any servicemember has had gun safety drilled into their heads, especially when deployed with a weapon.  I think that the overwhelming number of suicides carried out by firearms merely represents that servicemembers are most comfortable with firearms.  Restricting access to weapons while deployed is a ludicrous suggestion and restricting access to personal firearms seems more akin to putting up flypaper at a picnic.  The problems that drive servicemembers and veterans to take their own lives would persist whether they had access to firearms or not.  Again, it can’t hurt to make firearm safety a priority, but to stem the tide of suicide, the answer lies with the soldiers themselves and not their method.