Since its founding in 2023, the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Emergency Medicine has presented its mission to prevent all types of firearm-related injuries and deaths in homes and communities to audiences and forums with widely different views on firearms – and suicide prevention has been a key part of that message.
In January, FIPI’s mission brought two of its leaders to Las Vegas as part of the first-ever suicide prevention town hall at the firearms industry’s biggest trade show.
The forum was intended to raise awareness of the issue, emphasize that suicide is preventable, and make the point that everyone can do something to reduce suicide risk – including firearms-industry professionals.
Emmy Betz, MD, MPH, FIPI’s founding director and an emergency medicine professor, and Jacquelyn Clark, FIPI’s firearms industry partnership coordinator, were invited to be panelists at the town hall.
Clark, a co-founder and co-owner of Bristlecone Shooting, Training & Retail Center in Lakewood, has spent the last decade working on injury and suicide prevention issues through the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition, which Betz co-founded.
The town hall was hosted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, at its annual SHOT Show, held Jan.20-23. NSSF says the event attracted more than 53,000 industry professionals,including retailers, range operators, and hunting outfitters, from 126countries and all 50 states.
Getting engaged
Betz and Clark also spoke last summer at an NSSF leadership conference in Florida.
“NSSF has been the leader within the firearms industry in getting retailers and manufacturers engaged in education, awareness, and other campaigns around suicide prevention,” Betz said. NSSF offers a “Have a Brave Conversation” toolkit for firearms industry professionals to educate staff and customers about suicide prevention. Clark was named last year to NSSF’s board of governors.
Betz often talks of the suicide issue and gun safety in personal terms, having lost family members and friends to firearm suicide. She also cares for one or more people struggling with suicidal thoughts on almost every shift she works at the emergency department of UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. She has done extensive research into firearm injury prevention.
“What got me into this research space was not that we see ER patients after firearm suicide. In fact, it’s the opposite,”she said. “We don’t see those individuals at all because they usually die before they can get care. So it got me thinking, ‘What can I be doing to support people who are in crisis in front of me, and to prevent those deaths?’”
Whatever the audience, Betz said she tries to approach conversations about firearms injuries and suicide “from a space of respect, and not coming down from the ivory tower and finger wagging. You’ve got to be thoughtful about how you communicate science. I emphasize that I’m a physician and I want everybody to be healthy and safe. I’m very clear that I’m not trying to take anyone’s rights away.”
Before the SHOT Show, Clark said that when she and her husband opened their indoor shooting range in 2015, “from the start we were very concerned with the suicide rate among the firearm communities, specifically military and veteran communities. We’ve always felt like we wanted to do something to be part of the solution.”
Photo at top: Panelists at the SHOT Show suicide prevention town hall on January 21, 2026, in Las Vegas. From left: NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi; FIPI Founding Director Emmy Betz, MD; Christopher Barsotti, MD, an emergency physician; shooting range operator Jacquelyn Clark; and Mike Sodini of Walk The Talk America.
Emmy Betz, MD, at the Pause to Protect booth at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas.
A very common experience
At the Las Vegas town hall, Betz talked of her emergency department experiences, “caring for people who are going through the roller coaster of life,” knowing that many people with suicidal thoughts never make it to the hospital.
“On average, half of Americans know someone who's died by suicide,” she told the audience.
“I suspect it's much higher in this room because you're here. We've got to start talking about this more because it is a very common experience, unfortunately, and it's preventable.”
Betz shared the science behind the link between suicide and firearms. “We know that when a firearm is accessible to someone in crisis, the risk of death is much higher,” she said. “And that's not because guns make people suicidal. That's not what the science tells us. It's because guns are lethal. They are supposed to be. And if someone is in that period where they're not thinking as clearly as usual, they don't see a way out and they reach for a gun, they're not going to make it to my ER. They're going to die.”
She said in many suicide crises, the time between deciding to take action and a suicide is usually only a few hours.“So it's really about getting somebody through a high risk period in a safe way, getting them the help they need, but also making sure that they hopefully don't have access to dangerous items while they're getting that help.”
Betz told attendees that if they encounter someone in crisis – a firearms-store customer or a family member, for example – “a huge help is certainly reaching out and asking, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ and getting them help through the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline. It’s free, 24/7, and an easy way to start,” She also advised, “making sure that they don't have access to firearms or other lethal methods of suicide” until the crisis is over.
Pause to Protect
Betz said she was “really happy to see at the show this year a lot of emphasis on secure storage options” for firearms.“That’s good for many reasons – for [preventing] theft and kids getting intothe guns, but it also could help prevent suicide.”
Clark spoke at the town hall about working with Betz to try “different secure storage options at my store, all with the common goal of normalizing secure storage and making it more accessible in the community. It allows people to put some time and space between very lethal means and going through a rough patch.”
Following up on those efforts, Clark and Betz worked with a team at CU Anschutz to develop Pause to Protect, a program funded by the Defense Suicide Prevention Office for firearm retailers to promote secure storage options.
“Programs like this have enabled me to create a better connection with my staff,” Clark said. “They want to feel like they’re making a difference. And doing something like this in your community and taking care of the little things as a firearm business can create that engagement.”
VIDEO of the keynote address by VA Secretary Doug Collins followed by the suicide prevention town hall at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Video provided by NSSF.
‘This is personal’
U.S. VA Secretary Doug Collins delivered opening remarks at the town hall. “This is personal for me,” he said. “We take care of almost 9 million veterans. Every day we’re doing something to make itbetter. We can do more, because every week I get a report on my phone that says another veteran chose death by suicide.”
According to VA statistics, there are nearly 18 suicides among veterans each day, and nearly three out of four suicides among male veterans involve a firearm.
Collins said that while the VA spends $588 million a year on suicide prevention, 60% of veterans who choose suicide were never in touch with the VA, so the agency has been working to revamp its programs. “We failed the basic metric: Is [a program] actually reaching a veteran? Because if it’s not reaching a veteran, we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do,” he said.
Other town hall panelists talked of how suicide prevention is a personal mission for them, including NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi. “My call to action today is to spread the word among your colleagues and peers, and help us do something,” he said.
Other panelists were Christopher Barsotti, MD, an emergency physician in Massachusetts; and Mike Sodini, founder of Walk The Talk America, a nonprofit seeking to bridge the gap between mental health and firearm ownership. The moderator was Bill Brassard, Jr., NSSF’s senior director of communications.
U.S. VA Secretary Doug Collins delivers opening remarks at the suicide prevention town hall at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas.
