Nearly nine out of 10 of Montana's gun deaths are suicides, according to state data. Montana has the second highest suicide rate across the country next to Wyoming, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similar maps have cropped up around the country in recent years. Some Montana public health officials are building a map identifying locations that are willing to store firearms. They also want to encourage gun shops and shooting ranges to offer storage for the public. Public health officials hope that will encourage more people like Hossfeld to store firearms for family and friends. Montana lawmakers passed legislation to protect those that store firearms for others from legal liabilities in case someone subsequently harms themselves after picking up their gun. And that's the whole premise, Hossfeld says, of a Montana law passed earlier this year: to make it easier to help a friend get through a mental health crisis and alleviate the immediate risk of suicide until someone gets better. His commander recovered and was very happy to get his weapon back, Hossfeld says. So I just walked over and took the strap off, and said I was going to store his weapon for him in my toolbox," Hossfeld recalls. "We carried our sidearms in a shoulder holster. Hossfeld first stored a firearm for his National Guard commander in the 1980s after he talked about suicide.
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