Ben

Growing up, Ben “didn't really have a whole lot of exposure to firearms. My family, we didn't really have any guns or firearms in the house. Parents never really owned a gun, but we did have an uncle who was just a few hours away. And he lived on a farm, and he had a gun.” Ben recalls that his uncle “walked me through it [how to shoot a gun]: Here's how you aim, and here's how you point. And here's how you shoot, and make sure you hold it tight because it will probably cock back and hit you in the face, which is a very important thing to learn...And I was like, "Hey, that was cool." 

 

After Ben enlisted in the U.S. Navy, it was during basic training that he had a marksmanship course, where "we learned about firearm safety. We learned how to shoot a gun.” 

 

During his deployment, Ben’s close friend suffered from “mental health struggles. He was not adapting to service very well, missing family, going on deployment, all of the kinds of things that wear at someone's mental health.” His friend ended up “getting into some drugs, heroin, to be specific. And a lot of us really cared about him, and we tried to encourage him, and uplift him, and point him in the right direction.” Years later, his friend died by suicide. Ben recalls the incident as being “absolutely heartbreaking” and that he himself has suffered “from [service connected] disabilities.” He knows “exactly what it's like to be in a tricky situation mentally, not being able to cope with life. Life's hard. And then when you're not mentally stable, it's, like, ten times harder.”

 

Ben believes that if you’re in “a compromised position mentally, and you have easy access to a firearm, maybe it's not the best for you. Maybe it's not the best for your family, or all your friends, and everybody. Because when you take your own life, you don't only impact your immediate family, you also, all the other people that you come in contact with.”