CBS News
Can gun storage programs stop suicides? This researcher says holding onto a firearm “until the crisis subsides” can make all the difference.
Suicide by firearm is a uniquely fatal epidemic, with roughly 90% of attempts lethal. More than half of U.S. suicide deaths involve guns. It’s prompting calls for a new approach many think might make a big difference: gun storage initiatives.
Caleb Morse, a veteran who served in Iraq, told CBS News he’s “lost more friends to suicide than I did in combat.” That’s one of the reasons he started offering to store firearms for friends and community members in need at his gun shop, Rustic Renegade, in Lafayette, Louisiana.
From 2002 to 2021, nearly 87,000 veterans died by gun suicide — 16 times the number of service members killed in action over the same period, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety found in a 2024 report.
Since 2018, Morse has stored roughly 400 firearms, safely keeping them until their owners were ready to reclaim them, potentially saving numerous lives. Louisiana has passed legislation shielding gun store owners who hold onto guns from liability litigation.
Morse and others like him can make a big difference in stopping suicides by firearm because chances are high that owners who don’t have easy access to their guns during a moment of crisis won’t die, said Rutgers professor Michael Anestis, a clinical psychologist. Over 70% of those who survive a suicide attempt don’t try again, he said.
Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and one of the nation’s top researchers developing gun storage frameworks and projects, spoke to CBS News about Americans vulnerable to suicide, steps people can take to help a loved one and how gun storage programs can make a difference.
CBS News: How do guns fit into the story of American suicide?
Michael Anestis: You can’t really talk about American suicide without talking about firearms. More than half of all the suicide deaths in America are self-inflicted gunshot wounds. There’s a pretty clear relationship between firearm access and suicide death. So whether you’re the firearm owner yourself or anybody who lives in the home [where] there’s a firearm present, their risk for death by suicide goes up three to five times.
And it’s not that the firearm makes them vulnerable to thinking about suicide. It’s just that if someone is thinking about suicide and they have quick and ready access to the most lethal method, then they’re at greater risk of dying. If you take all the other suicide attempts together in the United States to combine them, less than 5% of those attempts to result in death. There’s nothing that compares to firearms in terms of how deadly they are in a suicide attempt.
CBS News: When we look across the American landscape, which communities are most vulnerable?
Anestis: The communities that are historically known to be firearm owners are also the ones at greatest risk for firearm suicide. So, often that’s White men, that’s folks in rural spaces, that’s middle-aged or older adults. That’s folks with a history of military service or who’ve worked in law enforcement communities that are more prone to owning firearms and are more prone to firearm suicide. Those who are dying by suicide are predominantly men. Most of them probably have families, they’re middle-aged men and they’re the ones who maybe are supposed to be the protectors.
CBS News: Why are veterans so vulnerable?
Anestis: Veterans have a great amount of training and comfort with firearms. A very high percentage of veterans are firearm owners relative to the rest of the community. So they have more experience, more comfort and more opportunity. And then there’s just a lot of aspects that go into the life of veterans separating from military service and finding a new mission in life. And when you combine all of those factors with quick, ready access to a firearm, you unfortunately get a tragedy like suicide.
CBS News: When is a firearm owner at greatest risk of suicide? Are there warning signs?
Anestis: It’s a very common story for the folks who die by suicide, especially by firearm, to not have asked for help, not have sought help, not told anyone about their suicidal thoughts. So the best thing you can do is try and make the environment less conducive to a suicide attempt. That means, you know, locking away methods for suicide. That could be medication. A lot of times though, that means locking up a firearm or finding ways of storing outside of the home until the crisis subsides – sort of like you let somebody hold your keys if you’ve had too much to drink. and then you get ’em back and you sober up.
CBS News: Why firearm storage – why not protective orders, red flag laws?
Anestis: There’s not one solution that’s gonna solve this for everyone or anyone. But what I like about secure storage is that it keeps the decision-making process in the hands of the firearm owner. Firearms are just such a politically divisive issue that people instantly feel like they’re being judged or they’re having their rights threatened, or someone’s telling them what to do. But somewhere along this continuum of safety for which people can plan, we can make plans for adapting all sorts of ways. We can keep ourselves and our loved ones and our property safe. There are tons of options for firearm storage – gun safes, gun lock boxes, Pelican cases – and each of these different kinds of devices have different kinds of locking mechanisms. It could be a key, a code, like you have a locker.
CBS News: What does an America that regularly uses firearm storage look like?
Anestis: It’s an America with far fewer suicide deaths and making it less deadly or less available across the globe and methods. It’s a story that results in massive and sustained reductions in the overall suicide rate.
Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited and condensed.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
CBS News
Renowned scientist’s ashes dropped into eye of Category 5 Hurricane Milton as lasting tribute
As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge had made hundreds of flights into the eyes of hurricanes — almost 400. On Tuesday, a crew on a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Milton helped him make one more, dropping his ashes into the storm as a lasting tribute to the longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radar specialist and researcher.
“It’s very touching,” Dodge’s sister, Shelley Dodge, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “We knew it was a goal of NOAA to make it happen.”
The ashes were released into the eye of the hurricane Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida. An in-flight observations log, which charts information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge’s 387th — and final — flight.
“He’s loved that aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s bittersweet. On one hand, a hurricane’s coming and you don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”
Sim Aberson / NOAA via AP
Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 of complications from a fall and a stroke, his sister said.
The Miami resident spent 44 years in federal service. Among his awards were several for technology used to study Hurricane Katrina’s destructive winds in 2005.
He also was part of the crew aboard a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.
“They almost didn’t get out of the eye,” Shelley Dodge said.
Items inside the plane were torn loose and tossed about the cabin. After dumping excess fuel and some heavy instruments to enable the flight to climb further, an inspection found no major damage to the plane and it continued on. The plane eventually exited the storm with no injuries to crew members, according to NOAA.
A degenerative eye disorder eventually prevented Dodge from going on further reconnaissance flights.
Shelley Dodge said NOAA had kept her informed on when her brother’s final mission would occur and she relayed the information to relatives.
“There were various times where they thought all the pieces were going to fall in place but it had to be the right combination, the research flight. All of that had to come together,” she said. “It finally did on the 8th. I didn’t know for sure until they sent me the official printout that showed exactly where it happened in the eye.”
Dodge had advanced expertise in radar technology with a keen interest in tropical cyclones, according to a March 2023 newsletter by NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory announcing his death.
The newsletter said colleagues were “saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of one of its longtime meteorologists,” who died peacefully on March 3.
He collaborated with the National Hurricane Center and Aircraft Operations Center on airborne and land-based radar research. During hurricane aircraft missions, he served as the onboard radar scientist and conducted radar analyses. Later, he became an expert in radar data processing, the newsletter said. He received a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, two NOAA Administrator Awards and the Army Corp of Engineers Patriotic Civilian Service Award.
Dodge’s ashes were contained in a package. Among the symbols draped on it was the flag of Nepal, where he spent time as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching math and science to high school students before becoming a meteorologist.
Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry shared a photo on social media of the NOAA log noting the ashes were dropped calling it a “beautiful tribute.”
An avid gardener, Dodge also had a fondness for bamboo and participated in the Japanese martial art Aikido, attending a session the weekend before he died.
“He just had an intellectual curiosity that was undaunted, even after he lost his sight,” Shelley Dodge said.
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Mark Harmon, widely known for playing Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on the hit CBS drama “NCIS,” is stepping behind the camera as the executive producer and narrator of a new spin-off prequel, “NCIS: Origins.”
After nearly two decades in the role, Harmon is now helping bring to life the early years of Gibbs, with actor Austin Stowell portraying a young version of the iconic character.
“You come in and audition here for years and years, and all of a sudden, you’re presented with a badge with your name on it,” Stowell said about now working on the Paramount lot.
The show’s set features scenes at Camp Pendleton, including locations like Daley’s Tavern, a bar just off-base. For Stowell, it is a role of a lifetime.
“I felt very confident in what I could bring to the character, and then the second you walk in the room, that all goes out the window,” Stowell said.
Casting the role of young Gibbs in “NCIS: Origins” was a significant decision for the team, as it meant finding someone to take on the character that Harmon made iconic. The prequel, set in 1991, explores Gibbs’ early days as a rookie agent.
Harmon saw the project as an opportunity to dive deeper into the character’s backstory, introducing a Giibbs that has never been seen before in the original series.
“This is a chance to really kind of dig into it,” said Harmon
The role also brings a more personal and emotional storyline for Gibbs, one that explores his grief after the loss of his wife and child.
“He’s in rough shape,” Harmon said.
Stowell has drawn on his personal experiences to portray Gibbs’ pain. His father died by suicide four years ago.
“Loss is something we all deal with and for Gibbs, this is something that has cracked him to his core, said Stowell.
Harmon has been a steady presence on set, offering guidance to Stowell and the rest of the cast.
“From day one, Mark has been available,” Stowell said. “He’s so good at allowing the people who are on this show to feel like they are supported.”
Harmon made it clear that this new chapter of “NCIS” belongs to the younger cast.
“I’m there to help and to talk to them or to tell them what I remember from being in this for a while. But this is their thing,” Harmon said.
