Can gun storage programs stop suicides? This researcher says safeguarding a firearm "until the crisis subsides" can make all the difference.

Suicide by firearm is a uniquely fatal epidemic, with roughly 90% of attempts lethal. More than half of U.S. suicide deaths involve guns. It's prompting calls for a new approach many think might make a big difference: gun storage initiatives.

Caleb Morse, a veteran who served in Iraq, told CBS News he's "lost more friends to suicide than I did in combat." That's one of the reasons he started offering to store firearms for friends and community members in need at his gun shop, Rustic Renegade, in Lafayette, Louisiana.

From 2002 to 2021, nearly 87,000 veterans died by gun suicide — 16 times the number of service members killed in action over the same period, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety found in a 2024 report.