U.S. military worries about guns, too

One provision in President Barack Obama’s gun-control plan already has played well in Congress and with the National Rifle Association: being able to ask people with mental health issues if they have access to guns.

Last month, Congress passed a little-noticed provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that allows commanders and ranking officers to ask troops who are struggling with mental health issues if they have access to firearms.

The NRA, a big supporter of the military, did not try to block the provision. But it was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

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“This has got nothing to do with the Second Amendment from my standpoint,” retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, former vice chief of staff of the Army, said in a recent interview with POLITICO. “It’s got everything to do with saving a kid’s life by recommending to him that he take action to distance himself from a privately owned weapon, because so many of these kids will find themselves in a situation where they drink too much. It’s alcohol and firearms — that’s when you have a huge tragedy.”
Obama believes the same simple tactic — having a conversation about guns — will help prevent shooting tragedies like the one on Dec. 14 in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that left 20 children and six employees dead.

Among the president’s 23 executive actions addressing gun violence is a provision that protects “the rights of health care providers to talk to their patients about gun safety.”
“Doctors and other health care providers also need to be able to ask about firearms in their patients’ homes and safe storage of those firearms, especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illnesses or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home,” it says.
“Some have incorrectly claimed that language in the Affordable Care Act prohibits doctors from asking their patients about guns and gun safety. Medical groups also continue to fight against state laws attempting to ban doctors from asking these questions,” the order says.
Obama said he will issue guidance “clarifying that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms.”
The National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by Obama, allows military leaders to ask troubled troops if they have guns at home and advise them to lock them up or give them away until they get some help.
Called “means restriction,” it is something mental health experts say is needed more in the civilian world, too.

An earlier version of the NDAA prevented commanders from asking about personal weapons because it was seen as a violation of their Second Amendment rights. But Defense Department officials said it tied their hands when it came to reaching out to service members at risk of harming themselves or others.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, now the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, included the original restriction because “they were saying they were going to [ask] all of them, regardless of what the situation is, and make it just a matter of course that everyone who is stationed in an installation and living off base, to register, to tell them what weapons they had.”

The most common method of suicide in the military — a rising problem among troops and veterans — is with a gun — and most of them are personally owned.

The NDAA now authorizes “a health professional that is a member of the armed forces or a civilian employee of the Department of Defense or a commanding officer to inquire if a member of the armed forces plans to acquire, or already possesses or owns, a privately owned firearm, ammunition or other weapon, if such health professional or such commanding officer has reasonable grounds to believe such member is at risk for suicide or causing harm to others.’’
Several retired military leaders, including Chiarelli, and suicide-prevention advocates lobbied the House and the Senate to tweak the bill to try to save lives.
“We know means restriction works, especially at that moment when they make the attempt or decide to make the attempt,” Robert Gebbia, executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, told POLITICO. “It works for everyone, not just members of the military.”
Would a conversation about guns have stopped Adam Lanza, who had a history of mental health problems, from going on a shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown?
“I don’t know if it would have stopped that,” Gebbia said. “But I think that if you suspect someone, if you asked — you’d at least have a chance.”