Shawn Vestal writes in the Spokesman Review:

Proponents of the initiative are focusing on the orders as a strategy for reducing suicides. They released information this week from a Duke study that found Connecticut had seen a drop in gun suicides after it adopted the protection orders. They noted that Washington’s rates of gun ownership and suicide are higher than Connecticut’s and said the orders could save lives here. Of Washington’s 702 gun deaths in 2014, 551 were suicides.

People can commit suicide in other ways, of course, but no other method is as quick or effective; research has shown that even the presence of a gun raises the risk of suicide.

Among those who have spoken up in support of the so-called extreme risk protection orders are people who have family members who have killed themselves after showing a pattern of dangerous behavior, and who say they had no tools to prevent it. One example is Seattle’s Marilyn Balcerak, who has been an outspoken proponent of I-1491.

Balcerak’s son killed himself and his stepsister last June after a protracted struggle with depression, suicidal thoughts and violence. His family attempted to intervene in many different ways, with therapists and police, but they had no legal method for preventing him from obtaining a weapon.

“If extreme risk protection orders had been law one year ago, I believe my son and stepdaughter would be alive,” she said.

Read his whole piece here.