Army general shares emotional plea with soldiers: I want to talk to you, ‘not attend your funeral’
"Please secure your firearms."
BY HALEY BRITZKY | PUBLISHED MAR 7, 2022 12:38 PM
NEWS
ARMY
Maj. Gen. Jo Clyborne. (Twitter/Task & Purpose).
An Army two-star general urged soldiers over the weekend to securely store their firearms after she said another “amazing person [and] soldier” was lost to suicide last week.
The US and NATO have reportedly shipped 17,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine
“Secure storage means storing all of your guns unloaded & secured such as locked [with] a cable or trigger lock, or in a gun safe,” tweeted Maj. Gen. Jo Clyborne, assistant adjutant general for the Minnesota National Guard and deputy commander of the Army’s Cyber Center of Excellence. “Please secure your firearms. I want to be able to talk to you, not attend your funeral.”
Safe weapons storage has been a critical point when leaders talk about preventing suicide in the ranks, a devastating problem that has only worsened in recent years. In 2020, the suicide rate increased across every service, so far that Defense One reported it reached “the highest rate since the Pentagon began keeping detailed records in 2008.” A study released last October showed that four times more service members have died by suicide since Sept. 11, 2001, than have died in combat in the post-9/11 wars.
There have been no shortage of studies and programs and initiatives that have atttempted to address suicide over the years, but military leaders still seem to be at somewhat of a loss when it comes to decreasing the numbers.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-general-suicide-weapon-storage/
