Enemy in the Mirror; the Army Has a Bigger Problem Than Private Guns

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Byline: THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Suicide is the third-leading noncombat cause of death in the U.S. military, according to Department of the Army data. On at least one Army post, the response was a misguided effort to require some soldiers to register personal firearms.

The Army would not tell us how many soldiers have used private weapons to kill themselves. In the general population, firearms account for about half of all suicides nationwide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, owning a firearm doesn't raise the risk of playing Russian roulette, just as owning a car doesn't increase the risk of intentionally driving off a cliff in desperation like Thelma and Louise. There is an underlying intention that manifests from what physicians call suicidal ideation, which is the process of …