Gun Range Suicides - Enough is Enough Says Florida's Biggest

Orlando Sentinal

Shoot Straight, Florida's largest independent gun-shop chain, has stopped renting guns to prevent its eight Florida ranges from becoming suicide parlors.

Khaled Akkawi, founder of the Apopka-based chain, made the decision last month after the latest suicides at one his gun ranges.

"We've had enough," Akkawi said Friday. "They've been increasing real fast and the one common denominator — everyone is done with a rental gun."

Shoot Straight joins a growing number of gun ranges across Central Florida that have restricted or prohibited gun rentals to stem the deaths.

While no agency tracks gun-range suicides, there have been at least 11 of them in greater Orlando since 2009, according to Orlando Sentinel reporting on the deaths. All were committed with rental guns.

Oak Ridge Gun Range, the scene of the latest suicide last week in Orange County, changed its policy after a previous death more than a year ago. Oak Ridge is now attempting to identify customers who would be a suicide risk.

"We don't rent to any white male Florida resident who comes in alone," said owner John Harvey. "In the past 30 years, we've never had a suicide that wasn't a white male Florida resident who came in alone. They don't want to mess up their families' homes, so they do it here."

Gun Range Suicide in Florida - Another One

Robert Adams used to think the gun range was a good place to teach his teenage sons about gun safety.

Now the St. Petersburg lawyer says he won't return.

Adams and his two sons were at the Shoot Straight Gun Range in Pinellas Park on Saturday when a man shot himself to death with a rented gun.

Before the incident, Adams did not know it was possible to rent a weapon for target practice.

"You don't know who's driving the car next to you," he said, "or who's shooting the gun next to you."

"To send someone back there without any training or knowledge is frankly irresponsible," Adams said.

It wasn't until Adams and his sons started to pack up about 3 p.m. that the man turned the gun on himself.

Tampa Bay Times

Adams and his younger son, picking up shells on the ground and facing away from the man, heard the shot. The older son saw everything.

Adams grabbed his guns and pushed his sons out the emergency exit.

Shootings with rented weapons have happened at ranges around the country. A manager reached at Shoot Straight's Apopka headquarters declined to comment for this report.

At least one other person attempted suicide at the same Pinellas Park gun range in August, Unmisig said.

In January, a 37-year-old St. Petersburg man shot himself at a Shoot Straight branch in Tampa.

In 2009, a 44-year-old woman shot her 20-year-old son and then herself at a branch in Casselberry.

Florida law does not require background checks before a person rents a gun.

Gun Range Suicides

Each year, millions of people go to gun ranges and there are generally a few suicides. One gun range manager says he refuses service to customers because "it didn't feel right." (AP File Photo)

Lehigh Valley News

If there's one thing Ken LeVan has learned over the past 20 years, it's how to read people.

LeVan is manager of the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Officers Association's 

Firing Line indoor shooting range in North Whitehall Township. The setup is similar to that of The Heritage Guild in Williams Township, where two 54-year-old men have used guns to commit suicide since April.

LeVan said he has had to refuse service to customers at The Firing Line, 4671 Egypt Road, on several occasions because "it didn't feel right." He recalled one situation in which a man appeared nervous, pacing back and forth.

"He was soaking wet from perspiration," he said.

He turned the man away, avoiding what could have been a bad situation, he said.

The gun range hasn't had any incidents in the 28 years it's been open.

Gun Range Suicides

News-Press.com reports

Suicides like the one Sunday at a Fort Myers gun range, while not common, are difficult to prevent, local firearms experts say.

Richard Arlen Kelley, 75, of Fort Myers, committed suicide at Fowler Firearms and Gun Range on Fowler Avenue. He had taken shooting practice for about 20 minutes, a store official said Monday. Josh Hackman, general manager at the Fowler store, said there’s nothing anyone at the store could have done to prevent Kelley from shooting himself.


“He came in, showed his ID, signed the waiver, we showed him how to use the gun, and then he shot for about 20 minutes,” he said. “Then he shot himself. That was it.”

The biased spin job of an article goes on to say "The News-Press archives show at least six other similar suicides at gun ranges around the United States in the past three years." Now, we know that's some shabby archives they've got there. A casual look shows more than that. The Scottsdale Gun Club has had half that themselves, for crying out loud.

No, this problem is a lot more widespread than the pro gun crowd would have us believe.  That's their strategy, to lie about the extent of a problem and then divide by all the guns in the entire country and say the percentage is insignificant. They combine that approach with the one in the article in which they claim nothing can be done about it.  But that's usually self-serving nonsense.

The problem with all their justifications is we're talking about lives, human lives. Renting guns to suicidal people is wrong and every effort should be made to stop it.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.