Yes, it is Saturday Night! Time for Suicide Prevention
In this live‑stream, the host (Brooke Cheney) leads a conversational session titled “Suicide Prevention Saturday,” aimed at gun owners and the broader community. She frames suicide prevention as the most effective way gun owners can reduce gun deaths, noting that two‑thirds of gun fatalities are suicides. The talk weaves personal anecdotes, observations from a recent DC hearing on a July 4th shooting, and QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training principles, emphasizing that asking directly about suicidal thoughts does not increase risk. She discusses the importance of sleep, perspective‑taking, and self‑care for both those in crisis and the helpers, providing concrete resources (211, 988, 911) and urging callers to seek professional help. Healing strategies are explored, including meditation, mindset shifts, nature exposure, and community volunteering. The host also previews a possible absence next week due to a planned women‑focused firearms training event in Detroit, highlighting the role of community service in personal well‑being. Throughout, she engages with live comments, addresses misconceptions about gun‑control statistics, and stresses the need for nuanced, data‑driven discussions.
Chapters
put the new thing up. But no, I was not that smart. But we'll fix that. All right, 9 o'clock. Gwebs, I know your first thumbs up. So whether you're still out there or not, I don't know, because this thing always like lags as far as like when it says someone's watching or not. I have DJ in the control room here. Oh, and look, he already put the banner up. Good job, DJ. Thank you. I've been forgetting that a lot. All right, Suicide Friendship Saturday, here we are. What are we talking about? See, I have notes today, so I'm actually going to stay on topic, theoretically. So we're going to talk about perspective, and we are also going to talk about how do we heal. And then we're going to talk about next weekend, because I may or may not be on next weekend. We're not really sure, but I'm going to leave that as the tease right now. So you have to stay till the end to find out why I may or may not be here next weekend. Alright, so I don't know what it's like where you are, but it was hot today on the range. Like baking hot. I didn't get a sunburn, but by noon I was bright red because it was so hot, and we started on the range at 9 this morning. So Suicide Prevention Saturday. Why? Because as gun owners, we want to make sure people out there understand when people talk about gun deaths that two out of every 3 are suicides. So if we really want to help save lives, suicide prevention is the number one thing we can do to actually save lives. So suicide, who wants to talk about it? Usually nobody, not ever, because, you know, when people die by suicide and you go to those funerals and you ask what happened, Yeah, there's usually about that much silence because nobody wants to talk about it. The other thing that happens at those funerals where people die by suicide is a lot of people say, are you— why, why, why, why, why? I was there for them. Why did they do that? So those are two things I notice at funerals. Hello, Miss Fiona. And, um, I'm ignoring G-Webs's comment for everyone because yes, I'm going to get to that at the end. So anyway, um, perspective inside and out. We don't know what anyone else is going through. We also don't know what is going on in our head sometimes or how stuff actually affects us. Something as simple as lack of sleep is the number one thing that helps lead to depression, anxiety, stress, all of those things. So all of you crazy night owls, including DJ, um, sleep is actually super important for your health. And same for when you're on the range. Some days you have really good days, and some days you'll have very good days. And some of that could be as simple as getting enough sleep the night before. So perspective. For those of you who don't know, this past week I drove down to DC with my daughter and we got to see a hearing and, and it was about the July 4th shooting and it was a good opportunity to think about other people's perspective. I listened to a lot of people talk and have their time. The way the hearing works is everyone's got 5 minutes, so they've got all these people up, everybody talks 5 minutes. Now there are people there— sorry, I'm like, I will try not to be squirrel, but I will be squirrel today. Yeah, it was a good day on the range. It was just a crazy hot day on the range. Well, here in Connecticut. So, oh, here, I'm gonna steal Gary's thing so we can just say hi to everybody at once. So hi, Gary. Hi. Oh wait, that doesn't show Fiona, but I think I showed Fiona already. Okay, so everybody gets 5 minutes to talk. You've got pro, get rid of rifle people, and you have pro-freedom people, and they each 5 minutes and they're, they're all talking. So the first person to be allowed to talk was the mayor of the city that, um, you know, they got shot up. And then there was a gentleman who talked about prevention programs, and then there was a Marine that elaborated on the fact that certain rifles are simply war machines, and then there was another gentleman who talked about freedom and the racism of gun control laws, and then we had a lawyer talk about law stuff. So that was the panel that we got to listen to. Now they're talking to our representatives. So each one of them have a different perspective on things that you and I know a lot about. Um, oh, but wait, before I go any further, this is actually something that, um, is super important. So this question is asked all the time: do you think that when you talk about suicide with someone, does it make them think about doing it more? In the QPR training we did, that was actually one of the things we talked about a lot because it's a question, and the question is, when you're worried about someone who may or may not be suicidal, is that you need to ask them if they think they're going to hurt themselves or if they're considering hurting themselves. And most people do not because they are afraid that it will make them think about doing it more, and generally that is not the case. You are not putting it into their head. If someone's got a bad day, bad life, all of that, they're either already thinking about it or they're not. When you ask them if they're thinking about it, they get to choose whether or not they're going to tell you that they are or are not, but you're not putting that there. And since I started talking about funerals of suicides, the other part of that is that people who are suicidal and think about it, like me, who have an actual plan to do it, there's nothing anyone else can do to stop me from continuing my plan. So when people say, oh, why didn't they come to me, that sort of stuff, is there something else you could do? Because, because I do this at Suicide Awareness Saturday, one of the questions, or one of the out. I don't know, one of the things that people talk to me about is survivor's guilt when someone does commit suicide. And it's one of those things that asking people lets you know you're caring about them, understanding that they might get pissed at you for asking the question, but it's more important that you ask the question than be afraid. If because wouldn't you prefer to ask and then say, yes, I need help versus, oh, are you having a nice day? Yeah, I'm having a nice day. How about you? I am having a nice day. 'Cause that's what we tend to do. And I just have to go back to G Web's. If you followed me on YouTube, I put the link up and you could livestream it. So it was on the CT Senate thing. I don't know if there's reruns or not. So we can always look that up. So back to perspective, because like I said, I'm going to try to stay on target. So once this is done, I will go on to the next thing. Perspective. So each one of the panel members had a different perspective on what was going on, and I under— and the idea is to listen and just hear. Don't judge, because the idea is that When I say something, if you agree with it, you're like, yes. If I say something and you don't agree with it, you're like, no. And one of the things that's super important about perspective is instead of choosing a yes or no, think about, hmm, okay, what could this mean? So when people are up there talking about the death, destruction, evisceration, using all sorts of very emotional, emotional words to describe stuff, they really do a great job of ripping your heart out of your chest and tearing it apart because the tragedy is a tragic thing and tragedy is horrible, and there's serious pain in that. And that's why the next thing we're going to talk about tonight is how to heal. But tragedy is horrible. I always go back to Sandy Hook. That Friday night— it was a Friday that Sandy Hook happened on, for those of you who don't know— and it's— tragedy is horrible. It causes emotional difficulties, which then cause physical difficulties in many people, especially if you don't deal with it So trauma, they sat in that room and they ripped and tore and poked at trauma a whole lot. And then there were other people that were just stating facts, stating facts, stating facts, stating facts. And I'm not going to say who won or lost, but the perspective of this is to be able to listen with both ears, try to understand where someone else is coming from. Now, to Mike's point about would you ask somebody if they're suicidal, um, you never know how someone is really feeling. And I had graphics up, but they didn't come out the way that I thought, so I'm just gonna have to go through this. So there are plenty of very strong people in your life, including me, right? Well, I don't know that I'm in your life or if I'm strong, but anyway, um, There are plenty of people in your life that look like they have all their stuff together, and then there are the people that look like they are total and complete falling apart, everything is not so great in their lives. We are much more likely to ask the person who's falling apart if they are suicidal. Now I will give you my favorite/least favorite example: Robin Williams. Dude had money, fame, love, and no one could help him. There are people that look like they're falling apart on the outside, but they really got their stuff together and they're just going through a rough patch. So I guess part of the perspective thing, um, is to consider that you don't know what's going on in here. Okay, so I'm gonna go to Mike again. So if you think someone's gonna kill themselves, you call the police on them. The answer, again, I'm going back to my QPR training, which is why— oh, so DJ, totally look up the QPR training thing so you can drop a link for that in here, please. Yeah, the, the instructor actually gave this story of how they had— someone had called them and saying, you know, Susie Mae is in distress. And so he went to Susie Mae's house. She's a wreck. She's physically, or she's actually saying, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill myself. You all suck. So on and so forth. And there were other circumstances around that where, um, you know, they had reasonable expectation that she may, may actually hurt herself. So the instructor did call the police, and the police came and took her for that 72-hour hold, and she did not talk to him, and she was pissed, and she was mad, and she was angry. And 2 or 3 years later, she came around and thanked him for doing what he did. Now, are you always going to thank you for something like that? No. Do you know for sure they want to kill themselves? No. Do you know that you saved their life? No. Um, but better to risk it than not. If you really think someone is going to harm themselves. Now, again, people reach out to me with these questions personally, and this is where I say call 211, right? Oh, look, there it goes. Oh wait, I can't go that way. 911, right? Um, because they have resources available to you if you're in crisis. Now here's the thing, this is for you. Like, if you think someone is gonna harm themselves, that's trauma for you and you need help with that. And so you call that 800 number or text that 800 number, however you want to deal with it, and you say, hey, I have someone who I'm really concerned about. And talk to an actual professional. Because remember, I am not a counselor, I am not a professional, I am just someone who as a teen was suicidal and figured this is an important thing to talk about. So, um, uh, yeah, um, and to DJ's point, uh, hard to listen objectively when your interests or passions seem to be misunderstood or underappreciated. Yeah, so the, the hearings, back to that piece of this tonight, were challenging for sure because I am a little data mining monkey when it comes to violence prevention and what the stats actually say. So as they are throwing out true facts without proper context It was challenging. So for example, during Clinton's rifle ban, 10 years, crime did go down. That is a true statement. However, it had nothing to do with the rifle ban. Those 10 years, the FBI, DOJ, Department of Ed had implemented a whole boatload of crime prevention strategies gang prevention strategies that were actually effective. So this is one of the things right now, the narrative is very much— the truth is crime went down in those 10 years. That is true. Did the rifle ban create that decrease in crime? The answer to that is no, it did not. So I have— I'm working on a sheet for that because I had to get all the numbers out of my head and onto a sheet. I'm actually going to be sharing that with Mr. Dick Heller shortly because Mr. Dick Heller just put up Heller 5 and 6, and I think he's going after DC for something else. I have it on video. I'll have to look. So, perspective. How do we say this well? I don't know. What's going on in someone's head, you don't know. What crap people have gone through in their entire life, you don't know. What tools they have to deal with the crap they've gone through in their life, you don't know. Um, sorry, I just have to laugh at this. I wish more people would do research, um, lazy and make lazy arguments with no context. Whatsoever, and Democrats do it all the time. So people are lazy for sure, without a doubt, no doubt in my mind, we are all lazy. Now I will say we get inspired by the things that inspire us. I was that dumb lazy person that knew nothing about guns and thought that a 10-round mag ban was fine because you still had bullets in your gun, so who cared? It wasn't until I got into competition that I realized that a 10-round mag ban is a gun ban. Now I'm at the point where I realize you're right. They're not coming for our guns. They're just going to put so many laws that they can just throw us in jail because we're all going to be felons no matter what. So anyway, that is that. So back to perspective. Sorry, I'm only going to be a little bit squirrely tonight. You don't know what someone's going through. You don't know what you're going through. Sometimes you don't have— know how stuff affects you. All of our lives could be compared to a fairy tale and a nightmare. Tara and I were chatting a while back, and she was telling me how her great-grandma— I think she knew her great-grandma, and her great-grandma was born in the 1800s. And to me, that's part of like the fairy tale life. I'm like, how cool is that? That's also very good genetics, so Tara's probably gonna live forever. But then like right now, yeah, the nightmare part of things where it's hard recovering from stuff. She had a motorcycle accident, I don't know, it was a month ago now. So healing is hard, healing's traumatic, having the accident's traumatic. So we can choose what we're focusing on, and all of our lives are the same. We can focus on stuff that makes it the nightmare, we can focus on stuff that makes it the fairy tale, and chances are the truth is somewhere in between, and try not to get stuck in either. So that's what my final conversation on perspective is this evening. Um, oh, let's see. And, uh, oh my goodness. Yeah, so now I'm getting lost in the things. All right, so DJ, you are now currently in charge of comments because I'm way too squirrely this evening. All right, there is value in having a cool-off conversation with your support system after speaking to someone in crisis. The internalization of distress on the part of those that help is real. Self-care, right? And like I said, people think, well, people call me when they've got friends who are in distress. And so I talk to them and I give them what I believe is the best advice I can. But my other advice is always call someone who really knows and what the resources actually are. 'Cause the beauty of 211 is it is national shortly, but then there's also 988, which I'm not sure if it's up and running yet because 988 is the parent phone number, and it really actually tends to just roll over to your 211 local area, and they have it set up so even when you're calling from a cell phone, they actually know where you are. So, um, next thing, that's the end of perspective because I've traveled on and off that road enough so far tonight. Nightmare, uh, fairy tale, my life is absolutely both of those things. I've had amazing, amazing things happen in my life. I've had some not so awesome things happen in my life. And now I would say I have more awesome things than not awesome things. But no matter what, and sometimes the trauma surprises me, I think I'm over stuff and I'm not. So take care of you first so that you have the resources you need to help. Uh, oh wait, self-growth little thing for me right now. I am How old am I? I'm 51, and apparently it's taken me 50 years-ish to learn that I can reach out to other people. I've always been happy to be the one that I can help everybody, but just this past 2 weeks, I remembered there are people I can call when I need help, and I actually have. So just want to say, if you're one of those people, thank you for that. All right, how do we heal? Number 2 on my list of things to talk about tonight. So number 2, yes, hold on, sorry, I just have to show Vanessa Kitty's up here. Uh, this is so very true with everything. And I know we talked about addiction a little bit, um, talked about my mom and dad with alcohol and drugs, and I always want to throw that in there, but they were really awesome parents, um, because if it were not for them being exactly how they were, I would not be exactly how I am. So not everything drug-related or alcohol-related is bad, nor is it all good. So again, perspective, right? So yeah, could lead a horse to water, can't make them drink. And that includes ourselves, because guess what? I am pretty confident all of you out there are pretty darn smart. Y'all know how to be healthy. Drink water, get enough sleep, eat good food. Right? We all pretty much know that. Oh, exercise? Yeah, a little extra dopamine hit for that, getting that, getting the gym in back, or you crazy people who actually go running. Anyway, so we understand how to do stuff that is good for us. We are not usually awesome at doing it. So how do we heal? Number 1, you need to know what you need to heal from, right? Like I said, different things affect us all differently. And there are lots of things that we can do. One, meditation, right? Like, oh, I tried it, it sucks. I'm like, try another one. Find something that works for you to bring you to present moment, right? So breathing. How many times have I gone over this? I don't know, but I'll do it again because I don't know who's new on here tonight. It is not the guy that comments is new because I've seen him here before. Um, oh, let's see. Wait, would you better say it might get better? Cause saying it gets better sound like a white lie. So here's actually— actually, this is very cool, sir. I appreciate this comment because today while I was teaching my students, I reminded them, focus on what you want, don't focus on what you don't want. Uh, again, I don't know if it's just a girl thing, but most of us internally are beating ourselves up all the time. On the range, everybody wants this little tiny group— oh wait, I'll put it over my necklace, right? Um, everybody wants this little tiny group on the target, so they've got 5 shots and 4 of them are here and 1 of them is over here. Oh, I suck. Like, no, 80% of your shots were exactly where you wanted them to be. Focus on the positive. Focus on where you want to go. In car racing, if you're in a spinout, you do not look at the wall you're trying to avoid. You look at the road where you want to go. And your mind has that amazing ability to bring you to where you want to go. When you say, "I don't want to be fat. I don't want to be fat. I don't want to be fat." Guess what? You stay fat. If you start saying, "I want to be thin. I am thin. I'm going to be thin." You get a little closer. It may not be instant or anything like that, but the idea is focus on where you want to go. Going towards healthy eating, exercise, food, water. Sleep is number one. Sleep's number one, and it's one of the hardest things for a lot of Americans to do. We have all this fake light around us all the time. So yeah, focus on where you want to go, because that's the other reason why I stopped watching the news when I was a kid. When I was a kid. Yeah, when I was pregnant with my children is what I meant to say, is that it's just like there's nothing good on the news. And people are like, well, how do you stay informed? I'm like, I am actually probably more informed than the average person who watches the news. And every cycle gets something else to be freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional about. I focus on Violence prevention, suicide prevention, that's my thing. Can I make a difference there? I'm trying, we'll see what happens. Um, I love this because mind over matter. Yeah, if you don't mind, it don't matter is what that always, always makes me think of in that another student thing. I love my students, they teach me so much, it's the best thing ever. Um, We were talking about being a duck, right? So when you're listening to stuff that's driving you crazy, whether it's family, the news, whatever it is, be the duck. Let the water roll off your back just like a duck. Because if you hear something that makes you mad, like, "We want gun-free zones everywhere," and I'm like, anyone who studied criminology, violence, and any of that and actually read the studies that the DOJ, Department of Ed have done, and it shows that mass shooters who end up committing suicide at the end of their spree specifically look for gun-free zones. Okay, I cannot reach those people because they're already convinced that more gun-free zones make things better. However, there are people that are uneducated that don't know and don't understand that that is the truth. Those are the people I want to talk to. Because I want to change minds that can be changed, not trying to change the ones that cannot because they're already focused on what they want. So focus on what you want, not what you don't. Understand that we all need healing of some sort or another. It comes in many forms. There is a veteran I know who suffers from PTSD. His thing is he's a hunter, and every morning he gets up and he goes for a walk in the woods. One day he came across a little baby fawn just nestled up under, uh, near a log, and he saw the fawn. And that really sunk into his head of, it's— here's a baby, here's wildlife just lying here, right? So now when he has a bad day, he goes back to that moment in time because that brings him his peace. Y'all need to go find where your peace is. For me, I love going out in the woods. That, that's kind of it. I'm sorry, Guy, I think you just win for the comments today because I just keep looking at your— maybe you're commenting the most. But, um, state where we're only listening to online gun echo chamber live shows. Yeah, that too. Um, it is what it is, but that's just it, is this is not a gun show. Oops. Um, how did I— sorry, I meant to take the other one off. So yeah, echo chambers, everybody likes to be in them because, oh yeah, that makes sense to me. The good news is you get to choose. We have so many things to listen to. Feed your brain good stuff, right? Power of One More, Ed Mylett. He's got a really cool YouTube channel, all sorts of really cool, interesting people from all over the place. Fun stuff like Zen Bow, Zen Arrow. This is probably one of the best things for me as far as understanding the present moment. Because here's the thing, when we are talking about anything, whether it's school shootings, uh, Boston bombings, the tragedy that happens every day— people can't put food on their tables right now, people are dying in the streets, in every major city because of gang violence and all of that sort of stuff. It's one of those things where if you focus on that, it looks like the world is always a nightmare, right? I said our lives are a nightmare fairy tale. But then if you look around your neighborhood and there's no blood in the streets and neighbors are helping neighbors and you go to church on Sunday or wherever it is that you do, you realize that the world is not as horrible as what the news makes it out to be. If it bleeds, it leads. So with that, how do we heal? Number 1, turn off the news. Way better. Number 2, realize that you may need to actually take time to heal. Number 3, I have no idea. It just seems like there should be 3. So that's kind of it. All right, what am I, what am I looking at? Once again, sells bags to lock up cell phones at entry in school. Huh, I'm confused by this comment. So anyway, um, yeah, all right, stuff takes time, learning ways to cope, some things never go away or heal or get better, but you can learn better coping skills help, right? Absolutely, because for me at least, I know I thought I was over lots of trauma from this childhood stuff, but every so often it comes and smacks you right in the head and you're like, oh, I was not ready for that. But the more tools you have in your toolbox for how to deal with stuff, the better off you are. And the joy of age is if you learn something new every day, you will have a bigger toolbox to pull from as you go. The important part is to continue learning things that will help your toolbox so that you can get a different perspective, get stuff done. Okay. So, I think that's it. It's half an hour. I, you know, I try to keep this to 15, Mike, just for you, but that was not it today. Oh, so this is the end. So this is where I get to say yes, G Webs, you are correct. Next Saturday, I may not be here. Well, I'm not going to be in this room at the very least, but I may not do Suicide Prevention Saturday at 9 o'clock next weekend because I will be in Detroit and I have no idea what our itinerary is. But we are going to be trying to get over 2,000 women through firearms training in 2 days. So it should be an interesting experience, to say the least. Uh, this is another healing thing, by the way, giving back to your community, volunteering and doing stuff for others. These are all things that allow us to release more dopamine, better than clicking on the like button and the thumbs up and subscribing, but you should still do all that stuff anyway. So, um, yeah, so that is why, um, I may or may not be here next Saturday. Now it's only the first time this year that's a maybe. So I believe that G Web said that, you know, he would watch as long as I didn't miss more than 3 since 2017. So 18, whenever the heck I started this. So anyway, I think that's it. Um, if you guys have any ideas, suggestions for future shows, let me know. And I will happily do that because I usually make stuff up every day based on what the week was like. So perspective— nobody knows everything about what you're going through, much less what they're going through. Um, how to heal— put lots of stuff into your box of how to pick stuff up and learn things, whatever it may be. And y'all have a lovely week, and perhaps I will see you next Saturday. And perhaps I will not. When I get to Detroit and find out what we're doing and how we're doing it all, I will put up another thing. So, um, so yes, you can send me whatever ideas you have. DJ also has things, and I will tell you if they vibe with me, I will talk about it. If I have no idea what they are, I'm not going to talk about it because I can't do that. I can't make stuff up. Um, oh, that's exciting. Um, so Gwebs has walked Jake from Walk to Talk America on Monday night chat. Uh, what time is that going to be, sir? Um, and CNT, you are welcome. While we're waiting for Gwebs to tell me what time that's gonna be, um, wait a second, DJ, he's not— wait, Gwebs, you're not on Walk to Talk America, you're interviewing Jake. Yes. Yes, but anyway, for anyone who wants to know, Walk Talk America, gun owners and counselors getting together to make getting counseling less scary. So anyway, all right, well, I'm gonna go because like I said, it's hotter than the dickens out here. And oh, midnight. Yeah, y'all that don't sleep, remember what I said about that sleep thing is like number one in health? I am not gonna be on Monday, but I will watch the replay on that one. And that is going to be that. All right, good night all. Have a lovely rest of your week. I'm starting to glow because it's hot in here.
