Mead Treadwell on Gun Control

Address school shootings with national mental health push

I link Newtown to the challenge of suicide we face in Alaska, where communities and caregivers are coming together to fight an epidemic of the worst young suicide rates in the nation. It is an epidemic that has taken thousands of lives and too often, other innocents with them.

Let us strive together to find help for those people who are detached from our community. Mental health professionals tell us that many people contemplate suicide, that it is often rooted in trauma and depression.

We need a national, community-based approach to push for widespread mental health first aid training, so people can recognize and respond to trauma and depression before it turns to despair, self-destruction, murder and suicide.

Law-abiding citizens have the right to keep and bear arms