Western States Seek Ways to Lower Suicide Rates

'The vast majority of gun deaths are suicides, and we don't have that conversation.'

Expert gunsmith Keith Carey stands behind the counter at his shop, where he makes suicide prevention literature available, in Montrose, Colo., on Feb. 23, 2016. Carey is a staunch, though soft-spoken, defender of the right to bear arms, sharing the worries of many in the region that gun control would debilitate America. Yet he's also a willing recruit in a fledgling effort to see if the gun community itself—sellers and owners of firearms, operators of shooting ranges—can help Colorado and a swath of other Western states reduce their highest-in-the-nation suicide rates. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

MONTROSE, Colo.—Keith Carey is a gunsmith in Montrose, a town with a frontier flavor set amid the rocky mesas of western Colorado. He’s a staunch, though soft-spoken, defender of the right to bear arms.

Yet now he’s also a willing recruit in a fledgling effort to see if the gun community itself—sellers and owners of firearms, operators of shooting ranges—can help Colorado and a swath of other Western states reduce their highest-in-the-nation suicide rates.

Suicide is a tragedy no matter how it's done.

— Keith Carey, gunsmith