A veteran's support for WA's voluntary firearm rights waivers

By guest contributor Brett Bass

Glenn sat in the parking lot of the sporting goods store. From the outside of his car, he looked normal. Inside, he was in turmoil.

Since he’d gotten out of the military his ambition was to become a firefighter. It seemed like the best way for him to be a contributing member of society. He hadn’t been a great student in high school, but he’d excelled as a Marine.

After a couple of trips overseas as a helicopter mechanic, Glenn searched for a career that would allow him to earn a pension and contribute to his community. He used the G.I. Bill to get an associate’s degree in fire science, and his physical fitness nurtured during enlistment helped him land a position on an engine company. During his first call for service, he thought, “If only my mother could see me now,” as he rode on the truck rolling code three, lights and sirens blaring. It was among the proudest moments of his life.

A turn for the worse

Unfortunately, this chapter of Glenn’s life ended abruptly when a vehicle maintenance mishap led to his leg getting crushed. One of the wheels on a ladder truck hadn’t been chocked correctly during service, and tens of thousands of pounds rolled over his leg and shattered his bones like they were kindling. He endured several surgeries and months of bedrest to recover, and at the end of that ordeal, he was medically retired from the fire service.

Two paths

This is where this story diverges. In one version, Glenn goes on to develop coping and resilience skills, he eschews prescription painkillers, and he becomes a professor of fire science. His journey is the ultimate example of the adage those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. He fathers a son who follows in his footsteps by joining the Marines. He retires from teaching and eventually takes up coaching cross country running before retiring yet again as one of the winningest coaches in the history of the school. He is beloved by his former students, his family, and his athletes.

In another version of the story, things turn out different.

In this alternative version, after Glenn’s devastating injury he develops a reliance on painkillers. Over time this affects his relationships. His marriage frays and disintegrates, and he starts losing hope.

He struggles to find a sense of meaning and identity as he moves from unfulfilling job to unfulfilling job. Years go by, and he begins to wonder if he wouldn’t be better off dead. After all, death was no stranger to Glenn. He had served in combat overseas and had handled his share of dead bodies in the fire service. By strange coincidence, the first body he ever found as a fireman was a young man who looked shockingly like him. The sight of a dead man who looked like his clone shook him so visibly that his supervisor told him to take the day off and get his head right. But after years of struggling and failing to cling to some sort of meaning, Glenn began to wonder if maybe that experience meant something. Maybe the only way to escape the pain was to opt out.

He’d driven past this sporting goods store countless times, occasionally wondering what it would be like to walk in, buy a shotgun, and take his own life with it. And in this alternate reality, Glenn has a mountain of risk factors and few protective measures to put any real time or distance between him and an impulsive, suicidal firearms purchase. In Washington State today, however, things are different.

Preventing impulsive, suicidal firearms purchases

In 2018, the Washington state legislature created a voluntary waiver of one’s ability to purchase firearms. Formally known as the Voluntary Waiver of Firearms Rights and Revocation, someone suffering from chronic suicidality can file forms with a court if they believe that they are susceptible to an impulsive and suicidal firearms purchase.

In concept, this is similar to policies and procedures in place at many casinos. Some customers have gambling problems about which they can become self-aware enough to file self-exclusion paperwork with the casino, resulting in them being denied service or escorted off-property. After certain conditions are met, the customer can petition to revoke the self-exclusion. The same is the case with the voluntary waiver: a revocation of the waiver can be filed as soon as seven days later. In this way, people struggling with suicidality retain agency.

Privacy protections

Robust privacy protections are built into this law. Employers, landlords, care providers, and others cannot require someone to file for a voluntary waiver, and doing so cannot be used to discriminate against you. These are critical protections for participants in this system that both serve to de-stigmatize treatment of potentially suicidal patients and protect the explicit constitutional protections of Article 1, Section 24 of the state constitution as well as the 2nd Amendment to the federal constitution.

Common characteristics of those who die by suicide

We know some things about those who are at greatest risk of suicide:

Men account for a large majority of suicides.
Suicide impacts all communities, but some suffer higher rates of suicide. Those include middle-aged and older white men, first responders, members and veterans of the armed forces, tradesmen, Native Americans and Alaska Natives, doctors, dentists, veterinarians, and attorneys.
Self-inflicted gunshots represent about 2% of suicide attempts, but due to the high fatality rate, they make up about half of suicide deaths.
Veterans of the armed services own firearms at about an 11% higher rate than the general population.
Members and veterans of the armed services are more likely to attempt suicide with a firearm than the general population, with just under 70% of suicides in these groups resulting from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Law enforcement officers experience even higher rates of suicide from self-inflicted gunshot, with more than 80% of suicide deaths in this profession resulting from self-directed firearms injury.
Many suicide attempts are made impulsively. Studies of people who have survived an attempt indicate that nearly half of suicide attempts occur within ten minutes or less of ideation.
Method substitution is uncommon, and in instances where something other than a firearm is substituted, survival rates increase dramatically.
People who are suicidal are suffering; they don’t necessarily ‘want to die’ so much as they want their suffering to end.
The U.S. Air Force found that while it was possible to reduce risk factors and to increase protective factors, it was much easier to do the latter than the former.
Rural areas experience a higher per capita rate of suicide than suburban and urban areas.

Best practices and cultural competence

Our work in suicide prevention must be grounded in best practices, cultural competence, rigorous science, and tempered with compassion. Regardless of one’s stance on the broader debate about firearms rights and public policy, we must recognize that suicide is an issue that impacts all of us. It is not a partisan issue, and ardent 2nd Amendment supporters suffer the impact of suicide along with those on the other side of the issue.

Washington’s voluntary waiver policy was the result of careful bipartisan cooperation, alongside the creation of other laws allowing for the temporary emergency transfer of a firearm and liability protections for firearms retailers who offer temporary storage. This collaborative work, respectful of those with lived experience and informed by the best research, can provide safeguards for vulnerable Washingtonians who may be thinking of taking their own lives.

Hope and recovery

I am here today because those safeguards weren’t necessary for Glenn in the beginning of this essay. Glenn is my dad, and the positive version of events is what transpired. I exist because he learned coping and resiliency and found a new way forward. He taught me how to change my oil, how to shave, and how to shoot, a skill that served me well through more than a decade in the Marines and for nearly as long as a civilian marksmanship instructor. The world is materially better because my dad is in it, and he has touched countless lives.

The best messaging for suicide prevention involves stories of hope and recovery. While my dad’s story isn’t one of acute suicidal crisis, it’s one that has all of the common hallmarks. If you are thinking about suicide, please know that your life has innate and incalculable value, and it’s impossible to know how much light you still have to bring into the world. Put down the gun; pick up the phone. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number is 988 and someone is available to talk with you 24/7. There is no harm or shame in seeking help.

Brett Bass is the Safer Homes, Suicide Aware Program Manager with Forefront, which is a Center of Excellence at the University of Washington whose mission is to help people take action to prevent suicide in their communities. Brett served 13 years in the U.S Marines. He holds Chief Range Safety Officer, pistol instructor, and rifle instructor certifications from the National Rifle Association as well as CPR, AED, and basic first aid instructor certifications from the Health & Safety Institute. He has trained thousands of students in the safe, responsible, and effective use of firearms. Additionally, Brett is a volunteer with the Washington Firearms Tragedy Prevention Network. He lives in southern Snohomish County.