{"id":6959,"date":"2022-06-07T07:06:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6959"},"modified":"2022-06-03T07:11:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T11:11:27","slug":"advance-care-planning-for-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2022\/06\/advance-care-planning-for-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"Advance Care Planning for Guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens to gun-owners\u2019 guns if they develop dementia or when they die? Journalist Judith Graham describes the problems that can develop and a way to plan ahead, so that the guns are safely transferred to others, according to their owners\u2019 wishes. She wrote her article for <\/span><\/i>Kaiser Health News<\/a>,<\/span> and it was posted on the <\/span><\/i>KHN<\/span> website on April 27, 2022. Her story also ran on <\/span><\/i>U.S. News & World Report<\/a>.<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Kerri Raissian didn\u2019t know what to do about her father\u2019s guns when he died of COVID-19 in December at age 86 and left her executor of his estate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her father, Max McGaughey, hadn\u2019t left a complete list of his firearms and where they were stored, and he hadn\u2019t prepared a realistic plan for responsibly transferring them to family members.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, McGaughey had lived alone for at least a year at his home in Weimar, TX, after being diagnosed with dementia in October 2020\u2014a situation Raissian realized was potentially unsafe but didn\u2019t know how to address.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, a new tool can help gun owners and family members plan ahead for safe firearm use and transfers in the event of disability or death: the <\/span>Firearm Life Plan<\/a>,<\/span> created by researchers at the University of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Denver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think of it as advance care planning for guns\u2014a way for someone to describe what they want to have happen to their firearms should they die or become physically or cognitively disabled and unable to use them responsibly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal is to prevent accidental injuries that can result if older gun owners forget to store firearms safely, their hearing and vision are impaired, they become seriously depressed or a medical condition such as arthritis prevents them from handling firearms adeptly. Another goal is to ensure that firearms are transferred safely to responsible new owners when the need arises.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As many as 60 percent of people who are struggling with dementia live in homes that have firearms. <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a real concern because <\/span>42 percent of Americans 65 and older<\/span><\/a> live in households with guns, according to the Pew Research Center, and more than 100 people die of firearm injuries in the United States each day. Among adults ages 50 and older, 84 percent of firearm-related deaths are suicides.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Firearm Life Plan has four parts. First, there\u2019s a list of warning signs (physical, cognitive, behavioral and emotional) that might cause a gun owner to use a gun inappropriately. Among them are symptoms associated with dementia, whose dangerous nexus with firearm ownership was the topic of a <\/span>KHN investigation<\/span><\/a> in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

Up to 60 percent of people with dementia live in homes with a firearm, according to an overview of gun-related injury and death published in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Firearm Life Plan kit stresses personal responsibility, safety and the importance of being prepared, themes that older owners and family members emphasized in focus groups conducted by researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Key messages for owners are \u201cthis is your decision\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s voluntary,\u201d said Emmy Betz, MD, co-founder of the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition and a University of Colorado researcher who led the project. Also, the kit notes that people\u2019s plans may change over time, and the worksheets gun owners fill out are not legally binding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk a lot about safe gun storage. This really challenges us to make sure that guns are handled appropriately when an owner dies or experiences health declines,\u201d said Cassandra Crifasi, director of research and policy at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.<\/span><\/p>\n

A second part of the guide features conversation prompts for family members and friends who might be concerned about an older gun owner and for older adults who recognize the value of planning ahead. Among them: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou always taught me about firearm safety. That\u2019s why I wanted to talk about some changes I\u2019ve noticed lately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think it\u2019s time to have someone give you an honest assessment about how you\u2019re handling your firearms these days?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m ever incapacitated or die, I need to make sure my firearms are taken proper care of. Having a conversation about what to do is important to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conversations of this sort are bound to be difficult since they touch on fundamental issues of identity, autonomy, safety and mortality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen several people that I\u2019ve really been worried about and had conversations with a couple of them that haven\u2019t gone particularly well,\u201d said Richard Abramson, founder of Colorado\u2019s Centennial Gun Club and a former board member of NSSF, a firearm industry trade group.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, it\u2019s much harder to get someone to relinquish their firearms than their car keys because of this strong feeling that I need to protect myself and my loved ones,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would ask \u2018Who is the person you trust the most to come to you and tell you you\u2019re beginning to lose it?\u2019\u201d said Michael Victoroff, MD, 72, a physician who is a competitive shooter and firearms safety instructor. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to tell that person you want him to be straight with you when the time comes, even though it\u2019s a horrible thing to talk about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The third piece of the Firearm Life Plan is the most straightforward. It calls for people to create an inventory of their firearms, where they\u2019re stored (including codes to lockboxes, storage sheds and gun safes), who should get the firearms when the owner dies or is willing to relinquish them and when transfers should occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Some gun owners have so many guns that they aren\u2019t sure just how many they own. <\/b><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Khalil Spencer, 68, a retired scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a member of the board of directors of the Los Alamos Sportsmen\u2019s Club, is among the legions of gun owners who haven\u2019t assembled this kind of information. When I asked him how many guns he had, he responded, \u201cAt least a dozen, I\u2019ve lost track.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In some ways Spencer is well prepared: after a \u201cmini-stroke\u201d eight years ago, he talked to his family and asked a former colleague to help his wife dispose of his firearms should he become incapacitated or die. Spencer wants the colleague to take some guns, give others to Spencer\u2019s two younger brothers and sell whatever is left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, Spencer acknowledged, he hasn\u2019t inventoried his firearms or included plans for them in his will. \u201cAt this point, it\u2019s all been done verbally and via email,\u201d he told me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, David Yamane, 53, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University who has written extensively about America\u2019s gun culture, hadn\u2019t thought about describing what should happen to his guns in his will before he reviewed the Firearm Life Plan. Altogether, he and his wife have 18 firearms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because gun owners care deeply about personal protection (two-thirds of owners cite this as a major reason for having firearms), it might be hard for them to give up guns as they grow older, Yamane said. \u201cThere would have to be some way of compensating for that feeling of vulnerability,\u201d he suggested. Possibilities include installing a home alarm system, buying a dog and moving in with someone else or to a senior living complex.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barriers to using the plan might also arise because gun owners are \u201cincredibly resistant to being told they shouldn\u2019t be doing what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Victoroff said. He plans to transfer ownership of all his firearms to a \u201cgun trust\u201d and name himself, his wife, and his children as joint trustees with equal rights. Altogether, Victoroff estimates he owns \u201cmore than 20, less than 30\u201d firearms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fourth component of the guide is a \u201clegacy\u201d section that asks gun owners to share memories and stories about their firearms and what they\u2019ve meant to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis becomes a plan for transferring family knowledge, and I think that\u2019s really lovely,\u201d said Raissian, a third-generation Texan who now researches gun violence prevention at the University of Connecticut. \u201cSome of the guns in my dad\u2019s estate are my grandfather\u2019s, and I\u2019m pretty sure Dad would have told me the stories if I\u2019d asked, which I didn\u2019t, unfortunately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for disseminating the Firearm Life Plan, Betz hopes that gun shops, shooting ranges, gun industry groups and aging organizations will make copies available. She\u2019s in discussion with several groups, but none have publicly endorsed the plan yet. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kerri Raissian didn\u2019t know what to do about her father\u2019s guns when he died of COVID-19 in December at age 86 and left her executor of his estate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Advance Care Planning for Guns<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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