Gun safety a life or death matter

The Register Guard ^ | 7 May 02 | By Bill Bishop

[Glutton]

Gun safety a life or death matter

By BILL BISHOP 
The Register-Guard

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By their own admission, Tim and Darlene Baker were pretty smug in the belief that their teen-age daughter, Jennifer, was doing fine and that the guns they kept in their home were no danger to the girl because they had taught her firearm safety.

That was five years ago, just before Jennifer used one of the guns to take her own life.

"We relaxed our guard. We didn't have an `accident.' We had a fatal shooting because we did not continue to practice responsible gun ownership," Darlene Baker said Monday at a news conference promoting Family Gun Safety Month.

The Bakers joined representatives of several local groups Monday in urging gun owners to unload their weapons and lock up the guns and ammunition separately to help prevent teen suicide.

	Tim and Darlene Baker, parents of a teen-age gun suicide victim, speak at a news conference at South Eugene High School as part of Family Gun Safety Month, as Dr. John Allcott (right), a physician and Ceasefire Oregon coordinator for Eugene, listens. Photo: THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard

Other local activities to promote gun safety this month include a gun turn-in Saturday at Coburg City Park and a Million Mom March Sunday at the EWEB Plaza in Eugene.

Dr. John Allcott, co-chairman of the local Ceasefire Oregon chapter, said Lane County families lost the equivalent of a classroom full of children - a total of 36 under the age of 21 - to suicide between 1990 and 1999.

In that same period, 330 Oregon youths under age 20 committed suicide, with gunshots accounting for 21 of the 29 suicides in 1999, according to Oregon health department statistics.

In addition to locking up their own guns, parents should ask adults in homes where their children visit whether any guns are stored there and whether they are locked up, Allcott said.

Awareness of the signs of depression and willingness to intervene also are key to suicide prevention, he said. Gun safety advocates urge people to be willing to believe that their child or adolescent friend may be depressed and suicidal, show they care about the person and tell an adult whenever a young person talks about committing suicide.

Jennifer Baker actually left a suicide note, her parents said Monday. But Jennifer's friends ignored it, told no one about it and discarded it under the bleachers after a ballgame.

"My daughter was a comedienne," Tim Baker said. "Half of them thought, `Oh, it's Jen. She's joking around.' But they should have told us. If it was nothing, it was nothing. If it was something, we could have dealt with it."

Jennifer Baker was a good student, an athlete and a typical teen-ager susceptible to the mood swings that characterize adolescence.

"My daughter did not give us any signs," Darlene Baker said. "No one had a clue. The best guess we can come up with is it was adolescence. If those guns hadn't been there, she could have gotten through it."

Even though a firearm took their daughter's life, the Bakers said they are not anti-gun - just pro-safety.

Had their guns been locked up five years ago, their daughter may still have tried something else - maybe pills, Tim Baker said. Had she done so, maybe she could have been saved with medical treatment.

"Firearms are so lethal, you don't have a second chance," he said.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Saturday: Ceasefire Oregon's annual gun turn-in, Coburg City Park, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

• Sunday: Million Mom March, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at EWEB Plaza, 500 E. Fourth Ave., Eugene

  SUICIDE/DEPRESSION: WHERE TO GET HELP

• At school: Go to the health clinic; talk to a counselor, teacher, school nurse or principal.

• Local crisis lines: Whitebird - 687-4000; Looking Glass - 689-3111; (800) SUICIDE

• Community services: Lane County Mental Health - 682-7575; Options counseling - 687-6983; Looking Glass counseling - 484-4428; Center for Family Development - 342-4863; ACES - 344-2377.

• Online: www.yellowribbon.org</A HREF>; www.befrienders.org</A HREF>;

  www.teenlineonline.org</A HREF>

  - The Register-Guard

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[Glutton]

It's always the gun's fault, isn't it?

[Clemenza]

Sheesh. In Florida, the parent is liable if a child "finds" a gun adn kilss/injures themselves. Of course, the morons like those in this article will always blame "the gun".

[another cricket]

Not to make light of their grief but would they have preferred that she jumped out a window or hung herself?

If someone is determined to do themselves in they will.

a.cricket

[Eagle Eye]

They aren't anti gun but they are associating with Ceasefire and the MMM???

[Glutton]

There is a strong, well organized anti-gun movement locally. This has to be a gambit to help villify guns. If you have a home invasion or break-in, who has time to get the stupid gun out of the safe, the trigger guard off, and to put bullets into it? This P.R. game they play here is very clearly anti-gun.

[Billthedrill]

Well, "gun safety" is the latest euphemism for gun control via legislation, but the persons involved haven't changed in identity or intention. There's a pretty easy way to smoke them out - when they mention "gun safety" ask them if that means they support teaching safe gun handling in school. If not, then the "safety" they're talking about is really "abolition."

[Eagle Eye]

Having these groups teach gun safety is like having PETA teach BBQ.

[Puppage]

There's no guns in Japan, yet people are killing themselves by the bucketful.

[dbwz]

Jennifer Baker actually left a suicide note, her parents said Monday. But Jennifer's friends ignored it, told no one about it and discarded it under the bleachers after a ballgame.

"My daughter did not give us any signs," Darlene Baker said. "No one had a clue. The best guess we can come up with is it was adolescence. If those guns hadn't been there, she could have gotten through it."

I want to say here and now that gun controllers who prey on relatives of suicide victims are among the most despicable human beings on the planet. Relatives are struggling for ANY answer, because the act is so senseless and the guilt is so overwhelming.

If parents lock their guns and ammunition separately, will this cause them to pay closer attention to their kids?

[ladtx]

Tim and Darlene Baker, parents of a teen-age gun suicide victim,

I don't want to seem cold here but why are they never referred to as a suicide perpetrator?

[cruiserman]

Sorry to hear about it, but the gun was only the method. It seems to me the real issue is why she killed herself, and they are focussing on an easy fix that won't work.

[BlackbirdSST]

If those guns hadn't been there, she could have gotten through it." I'm truely sorry for your grief lady, but you're an idiot! Any kitchen knife's laying around? Any pills in the medicine cabinet? Poison under the sink?Blackbird.

[Glutton]

I have a neighbor who argues to me that my guns are oppressive symbols of the dominant culture of patriarchy in the United States. She warned other neighbors about my equipment.

That backfired into new friendships with fellow gun owners, and we all agree that it's her mouth that needs to be unloaded and zipped. ;-)

[dead]

It's always the gun's fault, isn't it?

Better the gun than the mirror.

[Eagle Eye]

That's right, blame the victim.

/sarcasm

[Billthedrill]

I have a neighbor who argues to me that my guns are oppressive symbols of the dominant culture of patriarchy in the United States.

I've heard that one before - everything's a symbol to those who don't want to consider the reality. You ought to put her in touch with the Second Amendment Sisters and let her convince them that firearms aren't empowering.

[Mike K]

"If those guns hadn't been there, she could have gotten through it."

No she wouldn't have. She would have taken an overdose of medication or slit her wrists or driven her car into a wall. Sorry folks, your kid made her choice. The tool is unimportant.

[ladtx]

That's right, blame the victim.

/sarcasm

Just seems to me the victims here are the parents. Of course from the sound of the article the real perp is the gun.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I suppose they would feel better if she had taken 50 sleeping pills and washed them down with whiskey or driven her car into a tree at 90 mph or cut her wrists.

[Glutton]

That would really be sticky as damaging a city tree in the public right of way leads to up to a 1500.00 dollar fine here.