Police barred the Guardian entry from the room in which the NRA held gun-themed activities for children. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
Introductory Essay By Betsy L. Angert | Originally Published at EmpathyEducates. April 27, 2014

Surely, it will not happen to you. The telephone will not ring and no one will come to your door to tell you, “I am sorry to have to tell you this, but your son took his life today.” He did so in a classroom. He brought the gun to school. No, it will not happen. You will not hear that it was your daughter who took her own life. She wrote, “Life ain’t worth the pain.” Soon after the popular girl tweeted, “Finally got a gun.” No it will not happen to you. Your daughter is not that student. She’s good girl at home and at school. She plays volleyball and interacts with hundreds of friends. No, it will never happen. Yet, it did; it happens everyday. A child takes his or her life. Indeed, “far more people kill themselves with a firearm each year than are murdered with one. Nonetheless, we invite our young to carry a gun. The NRA offers children free memberships and encourages ‘Youth Day’ gun activities. Did you see what occurred at their recent convention?

Families gathered. A father introduced his children to, what for him, is a way of life. He said, “I’ve always been a shooter.” “Oh yeah, these guys are all revved up for it.” No one questioned whether Cody, 12, Sarah, 8 and Wyatt, 6, might one day take a life. No one asked if they might some day become a statistic. “In 2010 in the U.S., 19,392 people committed suicide with guns, compared with 11,078 who were killed by others. ”

Suicide is not painless; it is common. And how many of us have experience with it. Perhaps my own story will speak to this dilemma. Oh, I wish I had but one tale to tell. Sadly there are many. That alone troubles me. I offer what perhaps was the most unexpected.

It occurred early in my teaching. I had recently transferred to a suburban High School. The population was varied. Some students resided with their families in stately homes on the hill; others lived with one or the other poor parent. Some students stayed with relatives. Rarely did I think to ask which was which, and why would I unless it came up in conversation. And when it did…at least on this one occasion, it was enlightening. I never imagined.

She was a sweet girl, in her junior year. I will call her Jill. She was loquacious, but never in a way that was disruptive. Jill was popular, personable and she did well in her classes. She was not necessarily an “A” student, although she was abundantly intelligent. Jill seemed more interested in her peers. An arbitrary standard of achievement did not direct her. This made sense to me, then just it does today. I have never believed that intelligence nor success can be measured. I do believe that what we learn in life propels us. It did for Jill, and as it does for me. Here is the lesson.

One day while the students worked I worked along with them. Typically, I sit at their tables. I do not recall what the conversation was on that particular day, or why it went where it did. What I do know is what I learned from Jill; suicides are not uncommon.

This suicide occurred the year before we spoke. Jill was fourteen at the time. She was living with her father. Everything seemed to be going along fine. Then it happened. Her Dad “blew his brains out,” she said. Jill told her tale matter-of-factly. Calmly, she explained when there is a suicide in the home the family is left to clean up the mess. She recalled, “brain tissue, blood, and guts were all over the walls after the killing.” Perhaps because self-slaughter does not receive much attention, I never knew. Nor could I imagine the silence. I only discovered what too often remains hidden because Jill and I were genuinely chatting. We were doing what people do when there is nothing sensational in the news. We talked.

I later learned from other teachers that they had wondered why Jill’s grades had slipped. She was not one for depression. Jill’s mood did not visibly shift and perhaps, more notably no one asked her a question, not the teachers or the administrators. Oh, some might have probed, but the question is do we discuss emotions? We can barely bring ourselves to talk about guns… We speak about protection or prevention but we do we ever dare look at the statistics.

Gun availability is a risk factor for suicide. The Harvard School of Public Health released a study. The findings show that “The preponderance of current evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for youth suicide in the United States. Adolescents who commit suicide with a gun use the family gun.” Across the states, more guns equate to more suicides. Differences in mental health cannot explain the gun availability and suicide connection. Gun owners do not have more mental health problems; nor are these individuals on balance more suicidal. What is consistent is that a person who uses a gun to attempt suicide is likely to be successful.

We ignore what is real. We adjust. We say “This is the new normal.” Let us sell more guns and also, offer these to our children. How many of us express concern for what continues to remain hidden….

NRA Offers Children Free Membership Amid ‘Youth Day’ Gun Activities
Event sponsored by major gun manufacturers gives young children the opportunity to play games and win a shotgun

By Jon Swaine in Indianapolis | Originally Published at The Guardian. April 27, 2014

The National Rifle Association on Sunday offered young children free membership and the opportunity to win a high-powered rifle or shotgun.

A “Youth Day” at the influential gun lobby group’s annual convention in Indianapolis was scheduled to culminate with a prize draw in which participants could take home a WBY-X rifle or shotgun supplied by Weatherby, a major firearms manufacturer and a sponsor of the event. All were also given a free six-month youth membership of the NRA.

Media were banned from covering Youth Day. When the Guardian approached the ballroom in which the event was to take place, one of two police officers guarding the room ordered a reporter to leave and said no journalists were even allowed to be in the adjacent 350-yard corridor.

“That is just what the organisers have told me,” the police officer said repeatedly, when asked why media were supposed to be barred from the area, where other convention attendees were walking around freely.

In a reference to this year’s host city, the youth event was speedway themed. Children were expected to participate in a so-called “Sponsor’s 100”, in which they would dash around the exhibit hall in the vast Indiana Convention Center and make “pit stops” at sponsors’ booths, where they were to collect corporate handouts and merchandise from weapons manufacturers.

Official corporate backers of Youth Day included major gun manufacturers such as Remington, Smith & Wesson and Marlin, as well as Brownell’s, which claims to be the world’s biggest supplier of firearms accessories and gunsmithing tools.

Back in the youth event ballroom, other challenges were set up for young participants including air-rifle shooting; lassoing, with two men dressed in full cowboy gear; and mocked-up fishing in a paddling pool.

Andy Myers, 38, of Ohio, said his three young children were keenly awaiting the Youth Day activities.

“Oh yeah, these guys are all revved up for it,” Myers said of Cody, 12, Sarah, eight and Wyatt, six, who all wore their own convention lanyards.

“I’ve always been a shooter, and I wanted them to learn safe gun use,” said Myers. Dismissing suggestions his children might be too young for firearms, he said: “For me, it is all about safety. Just as with any other phobia, the younger a person is introduced to something, the better.”

“I’d rather my children were introduced to guns by responsible people in a place like this,” Myers went on. “I wouldn’t want them just getting bad ideas off the TV, which can be a bad influence.”

A man shows his daughter a six-shooter.
A man shows his daughter a six-shooter at the 143rd NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibitsin Indianapolis. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
“I’m enjoying it here, but I’m tired after being here the whole weekend,” said Cody, who added that he enjoyed shooting an AK-47 and M-22 at a gun range with his father.

Asked to name his favourite part of the convention, he said “the models” before clarifying: “The girls, not the guns”.

The NRA describes Weatherby’s WBY-X range of rifles and shotguns as adding “edgy, attention-grabbing, dipped finishes” to some the firm’s best-selling guns. The firearms range in price from $549 to $749.

At the Weatherby stand in the exhibit hall, Taylor Nahrgang, a marketing manager for the firm, said the winning child would be expected to “turn over the firearm to a parent or guardian” following the draw. “I believe that’s how it’s going to work,” said Nahrgang.

Bear Pascoe, a tight end who was released by the NFL’s New York Giants last year, was signing autographs for Youth Day participants who stopped at the Weatherby stand.

“I think it’s important to encourage young people, even those in the cities, to get outdoors and learn how to hunt safely,” said Pascoe. “But it’s not just about killing – it’s also about conservation.”

In a statement made when the firm was unveiled as a sponsor of Youth Day, Mike Schwiebert, Weatherby’s vice-president of marketing, said: “Weatherby is proud to help support NRA Youth Day and make it a special experience for all the participants.”

“We very much appreciate the opportunity to partner with the NRA in providing opportunities for our youth to learn more about our industry and all the fun the outdoors has to offer, whether it’s hunting, shooting or rodeoing.”

References and resources for Introductory Essay…

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention in 2010 suicide was the third leading cause of deathamong persons age 15 – 24, the second among persons 25 – 34, the fourth among persons aged 35 – 54, and the eighth among those 55 – 64. Women between the ages of 45 – 54 are more likely to take their lives. Men aged 75 and older even more vulnerable.