Shooting sports remain a popular pastime for Arkansas’ young people. This summer, the National Rifle Association held the Youth Hunter Education Challenge National Championships in Benton County. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis visited the event and spoke with a researcher on youth gun violence about how programs like this one affect outcomes. He offers this report.
(This story contains discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat via 988lifeline.org. Help is free, confidential and available 24/7.)
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearm-related injury is the leading cause of death for people 1 to 19 years old when you combine homicide, suicide and unintentional injuries.
Cindy Ewell Foster is a clinical professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry and a researcher at the university’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
“I’ve been a trainer for other clinicians. I do research in the area of youth suicide prevention. So that’s really my calling and my passion. And I got interested in firearm injury prevention because of the role of firearms in youth suicide and, of course, all suicides across the life span in the United States.
“Over half of all suicides actually in the United States are completed with a firearm. So it became pretty clear to me as a researcher that if we want to move the needle around suicide prevention in the United States, we have to have some prevention strategies that involve firearms.”
Listen to the interview or read the story via National Public Radio station KUAF