An independent committee has recommended that military personnel’s gun access is more strictly controlled by the US military on bases so as to prevent as many suicides as possible out of the hundreds witnessed every year.

Guns are used in the majority of suicides in the ranks of the Armed Forces, explained the committee, which was commissioned in 2021 by the Pentagon to study the issue and proceed to recommendations, adding that by reducing access to guns, especially in instances of intense emotional charge, the number of suicides would lower.

Among the committee’s 120 recommendations is also to register all guns of those living in military facilities and to lock the guns when stored.

The adoption of these recommendations would strengthen current regulations, which vary from base to base, since they depend on the law of the state where each is located.

Access to guns, on which there are few restrictions in the US, is often a bone of contention in the US political scene, where the right opposes any restrictive measure.

More than 500 military personnel and 200 military family members committed suicide in the US in 2021, according to Pentagon figures.

Source: APA MPA

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