Amendment ID: S2265-3-R1

Redraft Amendment 3

Suicide Awareness and Prevention

Messrs. Keenan and Eldridge move to amend the bill by inserting the following two new sections:-

SECTION XX: Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby further amended by inserting the following new section:

Section 233. The department shall direct the division on violence and injury prevention to develop educational materials on harm reduction, which shall be discussed and distributed by the instructor to every participant in a hunter education course as provided in section 14 of chapter 131 of the General Laws, and to every participant in a basic firearms safety course as provided in section 131P of chapter 140 of the General Laws.

The purpose of said educational materials shall be to promote suicide prevention through safe practices by firearms owners to reduce access to lethal means. The materials shall include, but shall not be limited to, information on the following: (1) the prevalence of firearms suicide as compared to other forms of firearms violence, including demographic trends; (2) the risks of injury and suicide that may be associated with household firearms, to include the rate of survival for suicide attempts by firearm as compared to other means of attempted suicide; (3) best practices for identifying and reducing the risk of suicide involving household firearms; (4) available resources to learn more about safe practices and suicide prevention; and (5) additional information determined by the commissioner to be relevant to the purpose herein described.

The department shall further direct the division to develop a notice providing information on suicide prevention, which shall be available on the department’s website and which shall be posted and distributed in accordance with clause the fourteenth of section 123 of chapter 140. Such notice shall include, but not be limited to the following: information on signs and symptoms of depression, the state and federal suicide prevention hotlines, and resources for an individual at risk of suicide.

SECTION XX: Section 131P of Chapter 140, as so appearing, is hereby further amended in subsection (b) by striking the words “and (d)” in line 52 and inserting in place thereof the following:- “(d) the educational materials on harm reduction as developed pursuant to section 233 of chapter 111 of the General Laws; and (e)”