The Flathead City-County Health Department and Logan Health are rolling out a program to distribute gun locks to community members in an effort to prevent firearm related deaths.

“Ensuring that firearms are secure and inaccessible to children and teens is one of the most effective ways to prevent suicides and other firearm-related deaths,” Flathead County’s Community Health Manager Rose Hash said. 

The locks are funded from a grant awarded to the Health Department through the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant program, which provides core maternal and child health services. 

A review of all Flathead County deaths in children ages 17 and younger revealed that since 2021 about 40% of preventable deaths involved a firearm. Further, 21% of students indicated that they had seriously considered attempting suicide, according to a 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey for Flathead County.  

The review identifies if deaths may have been preventable and implements yearly death prevention initiatives in the community, Hash explained. 

As a result of the findings, the Health Department’s objective is to distribute gun locks with Logan Health Behavioral Health. Gun locks, cheaper than gun safes, are designed to secure independent firearms to prevent them from being loaded, fired or accessed by individuals without a key. 

“Spreading that time out, preventing access, makes the risk for suicide go down significantly,” said Caleb Jordt, the outpatient services manager at Logan Health Behavioral Health. 

Prior to this program, Logan Health started distributing locks a couple of years ago in inpatient scenarios and Flathead County distributed the locks in schools in a past project, highlighting the need for suicide prevention initiatives over the years. 

“In Montana, gun ownership is, to no surprise, among the highest of all states,” Jordt said, adding that other factors make Northwest Montana a high risk for suicide as well.   

Flathead County in 2021 saw a suicide rate of 39.29 deaths per 100,000 people, nearly twice the national average, according to the Flathead County Community Health Improvement Plan. One of the action items in that plan was to partner with programs and organizations to distribute more gun locks.  

Hash introduced the program to the Flathead County-City Health Board at their March meeting. 

Logan Health is also part of a larger suicide prevention coalition, including entities like the Nate Chute Foundation, that is working on coordinating efforts to reduce suicide in Flathead County, currently focusing on bringing awareness to the 988-crisis line.  

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].