Let’s Talk About Your Guns

Dec 02 2024 12 ep. 26 mins 1

Let’s Talk About Your Guns Podcast artwork

How can we have open-minded talks about gun safety? It’s vital considering 40% of Americans have a gun at home. This series unpacks real-life scenarios around guns and suicide, dementia, children, health care workers, and more. Through stories and interviews, we offer practical and non-judgmental ways to talk about gun safety in tough situations. With the right tools, you can have conversations that meet people where they are. This isn’t a show about taking sides - it’s about saving lives.

Health & Fitness Society & Culture

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Teens and Triggers: Surviving the Impulse

Dec 02 2024 25 mins

Carson Molle was a typical teenager, but he kept a dark secret. As he struggled in school and sports, he became depressed. Then one day he tried to end his own life, but survived. In this episode, Carson and his mother Amber talk about safe gun storage in their family and the importance of preventing unsupervised access by teens. Dr. Stephen Cozza, child psychiatrist, joins the con

Gun Shops Would Like a Word

Nov 07 2024 29 mins

In this episode of "Let's Talk About Your Guns", Dr. West speaks with gun shop owners Caleb Morse and Jacquelyn Clark about their experiences with firearm storage and suicide prevention. They discuss how their shops handle the delicate process of accepting firearms for storage, often due to personal crises, and the importance of building trust with customers. The conversation also

Empowered and Armed: Women And Gun Safety

Oct 22 2024 25 mins

In this episode of Let's Talk About Your Guns, Dr. West sits down with Reba Rice Portwood, a former corrections officer who shares her deeply personal journey from witnessing gun violence to becoming a single mother struggling with the realities of firearm ownership. Reba opens up about the terrifying encounter that led her to purchase a firearm and the tragic loss of her son that

Your Guns? Why Should I Care?

Aug 07 2024 25 mins

“But I don’t own guns, and I don’t know anyone who does.” Think again, guns are present in 43 percent of American households. In this episode of Let's Talk About Your Guns, Dr. Curt West is joined by podcast production team member Kristina Medvescek and Dr. John Bradley from the VA Boston Healthcare System to discuss the importance of relevance of firearm safety conversatio

Extreme Risk Protection Orders

Jun 12 2023 31 mins

Sometimes conversations about safe storage break down. Someone you care about has ready access to firearms, but they are behaving in ways that you know make them unsafe. Extreme Risk Protection Orders were created to meet that need. We hear from Dorothy Paugh, who was instrumental in getting Extreme Risk Protection Orders - or Red Flag laws - passed in her home state of Maryland.

Partners in Safety

May 30 2023 24 mins

Four in ten American households own guns. Yet many couples may never discuss safe storage until there is a crisis situation. In this episode, we discuss how to talk about guns, safety and risk with those who are the closest and most important people in our lives: our spouses and partners. We hear from Julie Still, whose conversation about safe storage with her husband may have save

Gatekeepers

Apr 26 2023 27 mins

Each year thousands of ordinary Americans have a chance to say "Yes" to saving the life of a colleague, neighbor, or acquaintance. How? Simply by having a conversation about firearm safety. In this episode, we explore how trusted members of a community act as gatekeepers in suicide prevention. We hear from Reverend Seth Still, whose experience with his own guns in a dark time chan

I've Got Your Back, Buddy

Feb 27 2023 24 mins

Anything to help a friend… Those aren’t just words. In this episode, we talk about the importance of peer conversations about firearm safety as a way to prevent suicide. We hear from Jay Zimmerman, a veteran whose approach to conversations about safe storage changed after his best friend died by suicide. We also talk to Dr Adam Walsh, a suicide prevention researcher who shares

Doctors and Patients

Jan 09 2023 25 mins

Should gun safety be part of medical training? Most health care providers talk to patients about quitting smoking, but not firearm safety. Both are major causes of preventable death. We hear from Dr. Mary Campagnolo, a physician who wonders if a conversation about guns and safety would have prevented the suicide of a patient. We also talk to Dr Joseph Simonetti, a primary care phys

Keeping Kids Safe

Dec 05 2022 23 mins

How do you talk to other parents about guns? We offer tips on how to have this vital conversation - one many parents overlook. From 2015-2020, there were at least 2100 unintentional shootings by children, 800 of them fatal. All of these incidents were preventable. Hear from District Attorney Matthew Weintraub as he shares the heart-wrenching story of 2-year-old Benjamin Smith who