State lawmakers are looking at biometric safes, gun locks, education efforts and a new type of court order as potential tools to prevent suicide deaths by firearm in Utah.
A Harvard University study released earlier this year showed suicides accounted for 85 percent of Utah’s 2,983 firearm fatalities from 2006 to 2015. In part, that’s because guns are a particularly lethal form of self-harm, meaning there’s often no opportunity for others to step in and help, says Allison Whitworth, a suicide-prevention coordinator for the state. For that reason, time and distance can act as crucial buffers between a person in crisis and a firearm, she said.