I made a bet with myself: Most folks seeing that title probably thought I’d be talking about illegals. Nope. I’m talking about another class of non-citizens in America.

No, not green card holders either.

David Codrea wrote a column about a recent DOD report on suicide prevention in the military.

DOD Suicide Report Long on ‘Gun Control’ But Short on Who’s at Risk and Why
That means focusing on guns, and considering that’s what the majority of service suicides use to end their lives, that’s understandable. What’s arguable, though, is whether putting the major emphasis on means neglects the important questions of “Who?” and “Why?”

David covered the topic fairly well, so I won’t rehash it all. TL;DR: It calls for lots of gun control for military members.

But it — the report, Preventing Suicide in the U.S. Military: Recommendations from the SuicidePrevention and Response, not David’s column — struck a nerve. It reminded me of why, when I was in the service, I hated the term “citizen soldier.”

Citizen soldier always meant “National Guard.” We’d hear it  when Guards showed up for their two weeks, and even more during retention briefings. No one wanted to hear, much less answer, my question of, “Aren’t us active duty regulars citizens?”

That suicide report makes it very clear that they are not. Otherwise, it might take some notice of BRUEN. It might have considered that basically every restriction they want to inflict on service members runs afoul of the SCOTUS ruling. Bear in mind that all these are about privately owned firearms, even if they are never brought onto government property.

It has it all. Firearm registration, commander’s permission to purchase, mandated “safety” training, waiting periods.

And raising the age to purchase/possess to 25 years old.

Everyone one of those is in trouble in federal courts… for citizens. Especially that 25 year minimum age limit.

25… By the time I reached 25, I was already a Staff Sergeant and NCOIC of a base-level shop managing multi-year, multi-million dollar programs. But, apparently, I was too young to be trusted with a gun. Except the gov-issued, full-auto assault rifles.

Of course, that was then, and not the present day Air Farce that’s lowering standards, and actively recruiting the physically and mentally disabled.

I strongly recommend that the military return to recruiting high quality personnel and treating them like the citizens they are. Yes, military service has some requirements that civilians don’t have to deal with; and that sometimes requires some adjustments to how human/civil rights are respected.

But service members still have those rights, and the DOD would do well to accept that.

And in the meantime, the DOD could try another “study” to see who, and why, is most at risk for suicide; instead of blaming the gun and not the actor.

It isn’t as if that worked any better with criminals vs. guns.