If you or someone you know needs immediate support, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at one eight hundred two seven three talk that's one eight hundred two seven three eight two five five, or text home two seven four to one dash seven four to one. Hey, guys, So thank you for downloading
Paul Junior podcast. Uh boy, I just had an amazing conversation, uh
with a with a great guy, a Snapper LaGrone. He's the founder of
the Firearms Institute. And you know this is you know, he's all about
really veteran suicide prevention and in and through a very unique way, which I think you're gonna find this conversation extremely interesting. You know, the function of
this institute is very uh unique, uh, and I think that's what's so special about it. It actually has a tangible quality to it. And without
getting too far into it, I think you're really I think you're going to really enjoy the conversation I have with this gentleman Snapper. Tell us a little
bit about what this Firearms Research Institute's all about. Sure, and thanks for
having me on. I mean it's this, you know, big for organization
to kind of get our word out because most people you know, would never understand sure everything that's going on. So first and foremost we are research institute,
and what that means is we're looking at finding ways to educate people and saving lives at the same time. We've come up with some unique capabilities that
allow people to voluntarily participate in their own suicide prevention. Too often today people
are caught up in, you know, situations where after something has happened, people get involved to try and you know, help with suicide, and we're taking a step to be in front of that. Our organization has a great
panel of doctors, and we also offer specific things like firearm storage, firearms locks, and really voluntary assistance if they need it. Too often folks don't
even qualify maybe for medical care that they need, or they're too worried about somebody finding out that they're struggling that may affect them in their workplace, or you know, ostracize them from some future endeavor, and they really prevent themselves from taking an opportunity. And so we're providing an organization that will go hand
in hand with people as they're trying to prevent suicide for themselves, you know, or family members that want to bring it to an attention where it's voluntary, and you know a lot of anonymity goes along with it that I think allows people to really be in control of the situation. And I feel like
a lot of folks today, especially with suicide, you know, it's such a personal moment that most people don't even really understand. And if we're giving
it back to the individual to take that personal moment and identify and say I need help, but I don't necessarily know who to reach out to, We're going to be that that silent voice that's there that's open to helping in whichever way we can so so help me understand. So, uh, I guess
the question is is as far as the Firearms read the Firearms Research Institute's concerned, what is the function? What is the core function of it? And
I guess what makes it different from other organizations that's trying that are out there that are trying to prevent suicide, whether it be through you know, for veterans or just people in general. Give me the function of what it is
that that you guys are talking about doing that's kind of so different from everything else out there. Sure, first and foremost we will store somebody's firearm for
them. So someone's in a in a moment of crisis and they want to
you know, call us up. We'll pay for shipping or whatever. We'll
put it in our secure facility. When they're ready for it back, we'll
ship it back, no questions asked. Okay, So it would be them
voluntarily surrendering their their their firearms. Correct, And you're able to do this.
How we have partners in the industry for other FFL dealers with things of that nature that are willing to help us do transfers and things of that nature to make it you know, seamless for the you know, seamless experience.
So that's kind of a unique function. It is you're actually the federally legally
allowed to take someone's firearm, hold it for him for a period of time, and when they're ready for it back, you'll give it back to them, no questions ask no conditions. Yeah, the only condition is, you
know, normally they'll go into an actual dealer and reclaim the item. We
don't ship it to their home. They'll go into another dealer in our network
and reclaim the item, which which really is helpful, right because now you know we don't have to worry about it getting stolen or lost in the shipping or anything of that nature. You know, we ship it from an FFL
dealer local to us, and they, you know, pick it up at a local FFL dealer to them, and they can choose which one they want to pick it up at, and we coordinate everything no cost to them.
So that's interesting, and I think, you know, I know a little bit about this, but obviously for the sake of the interview, we're having this conversation. So it's interesting. So the function of it is if someone's
having a hard time, because here's what happens, right, Someone gets in a dark place, they get depressed, they start to feel suicidal, and they have guns. Right, quite often they'll in a moment of desperation,
do something drastic and that's when suicide happens, right, correct. So the
idea here is if someone's struggling, they can come to your organization and say, look, you know, I know what's going on in my head.
I'm going through this, whether whether it's PTSD with a military vet or just a regular person who's struggling through life, and they could say, hey, look, I'm worried about myself. I'm not feeling myself. Could you hold
my weapons? Can you hold my guns for until I feel better? Because
that's the problem, right because when them guns are always there, that's the easiest access to you know what in sometimes in their mind is the answer when it's not right. So you're able to create a function. That's what's so
unique about this. It's a it's a physical function in which you're able to
help them correct. Right now, from what we understand right is there's kind
of a post vention, and a prevention. Postvention would be more like,
well, someone attempted suicide, Now let's treat the person. Which that is
correct. That's a pretty bad you know, that's a pretty bad approach.
It's not to say don't do that, it's just that, my goodness, if it's just means they weren't successful, and then there's your opportunity to help.
Sure. What's great about this is it's prevention in the sense that it's
practical application. You're offering them something where they won't be tempted to have to
get their firearm for whatever period of time they're not feeling themselves. Am I
right? That's correct? Yeah? Yeah. And the other step to that
too, is you know, if someone's apprehensive about sending a firearm in the to some people sounds funny, but you know, we'll send them a lock and we're actually requesting the key to come back where they can lock it up and send us the key still have possession of their firearm, and then we're kind of the gatekeeper for you know, giving them access back to it.
And we know that most of the time when suicide thoughts are coming, there's a stressor something specific has you know, moved it beyond the normal stress.
Some event series and things. Sometimes you know it's a vet, you know,
having night after night of you know, whether it's bad dreams or things that are haunting that you know, their psyche. So there's things to progress
towards suicide. So what we want to do is say, you know,
there's an option for you if you're feeling that way where we can help you, you know, while you get through this this stressor then once the stressor is gone, can we can go back to No Now, is there anyone doing that out there? Is there any real So that's amazing. This is
what I love about what you're talking about. This is what I like about
this institute that you're creating. So let me ask you a question, why
why did you start this? I mean obvious say, but for you personally,
like, why why did you start this this institute? I think we've
all had a personal touch with suicide to some degree. You know, my
dad was a disabled veteran. I grew up in you know, an interesting
environment. I guess you would say. You know, at that point as
a kid, I didn't really understand, you know, a drug addiction.
You know. I think back there was a year in my life where I
didn't even talk to my dad because I kind of smoking weed in the garage, and you know, I've got a lot of guilt about that, and not really understanding what he was going through, you know, opted out of some care that probably could have been life preventing. I think, you know,
suicide preventing or how we want to look at it, just because you know, the whole medical system with the VA and you know, just how veterans feel. I think sometimes about the veterans approach to helping vets wasn't exactly
what he was looking for. And I feel like it's kind of I can
do it, so I should do it. Nobody else is doing it,
and I feel like personally committed to helping people even understand why why you should listen and not judge too quickly, because I definitely was too judgy to my father and we've all been there. You know. You look back and at
the time it seems like the end of the world, and you look back at something you go, Jesus, it really wasn't that bad. I think
I overreacted a little bit, but you didn't know any better, you know, And that's uh, you know, the big thing about this is human life, right, There's there's there's like what what is what more worthy?
Cause is there than life itself? You know? And to help people in
a practical way like this get through what could be some of the hardest time in their life, which might make the difference between whether they're here for the future, for their family, right yeah or not. That's what really to
me, that's what's really drawing me in. And I'm a practical application guy.
I mean, you know, there's you know, there's there's like you know, the psychobabble and stuff like that. I mean, there's there's reasons
for that at times, right, but certainly what I like about this is it's tangible. Right, You're like taking something, it's a very functional thing.
You're offering them something that is real, because it's hard to do in this situation because quite often with people you don't know, people will commit suicide.
You don't even know that they're depressed. I mean, this is just
I've seen this. I've had friends that just all of a sudden aren't there
anymore, and nobody could figure out the happy, go lucky guy, but nobody knew what he was going through, you know, And this is that torment, and we know that. You know what the bottom line is,
it's never hopeless. But when people get in that place, that's how they
feel, and it's a false feeling. But you can't change how they're feeling.
So at that stage in the game, all you can do is remove some of the things that might cause them to go ahead and make a wrong decision, you know. So let me ask you a question. How hard
was it getting this research institute of Firearms Research Institute, sorry, Firearms Research Institute established, Because this is a little different than like your standard charity.
Right, tell me what's the what what's the function of it? How?
How how is it? How is it getting there, how do you get
there? And then what's different from like one of these standard five oh one
C three's that people just kind of start on their own. Sure, and
we were really intentional about the name itself Firearms Research Institute, and because we wanted people to really be inquisitive and understand that it's more than just you know, we're not a charity, and I would never say we're a charity.
We want fund contribution, you need funding, But the ultimate goal is for us to come up with ways that we can do actual suicide prevention and then take that and educate the public and say there are other ways outside of maybe the traditional medical field for us to offer prevention. And when we talk with
veterans, a lot of them don't have someone they feel they can call up and say, hey, I'm having a rough time. Can you can you
hold onto my guns for me? Right? And so so we kind of
have naturally and organically come through this evolution to where we are today. And
it's been tough. I mean, I've had conversations obviously with congressional districts and
senators to make sure, you know, we get the thumbs up on a lot of the stuff we're doing because there is you know, I don't know if you want to call it controversy, sure or what, but there is a lot of people that are going to scrutinize what we're doing because we are circumventing the medical industry to some degree. That being said, we have a
medical doctor on our panel that helps us with a lot of things to make sure that we are doing what we need to do to offer help. But
really we want to make sure that there's no judgment and that we're offering a service first and foremost. Yeah, it's great, Yeah, that's great.
It's so interesting. And so tell me about the doctors. I mean,
tell me about what the function of having doctors as part of this is and really what you're trying to accomplish through that. Sure, so the doctors play
a pivotal role because we're going to offer some services and really their job is going to be one understanding, you know, is it helping? You know,
are we seeing an impact to the suicide rate? How do we track
it? Because we want to validate everything we're doing is actually making an impact
because we don't again, we don't want this to just end with our organization.
We want to create maybe a new standard or a new norm or something that actually is preventing suicide. It's just suicide is ramping up for veterans.
I'm from a veteran family, and you know that's near and dear to my heart. And if we can find a way, even through participation with the
veterans or any other outlets where we can offer services, not necessarily even just my organization, but just as a nation that offers prevention where people don't have to go, especially veterans, get scrutinized at the health facility before they get help. We want to do that. That's great. So as I understand
it's the National Institute of Health that's you're looking at some grants from them, is that there's something in progress there. Tell me about that, correct?
That sounds pretty legit. I mean, if these guys are considering I know
a lot of people put in for these grants, but your organization's being considered because it is so kind of groundbreaking, it's so unique of an idea that they're really looking at this thing, aren't they. They are? And the
reason why is there's been about twenty years of study on suicide prevention, and through most of that and almost every publication says, you know, if there's safe storage, and people refer to it as you know, if they put it in a in a safe. You know, people referred to safe storage
as a safe. But we know that people can just go over and open
a safe and you know that's not a deterrent. But they say proper safe
storage could be one of the number one ways for suicide prevention. So we've
taken a lot of the research. We don't need to do more research on
prevention. It's already been done. We're going to actually do what all of
the suggestions have said need to be done for suicide prevention, and we're going to and that's what our organization offers. And that's why the NIH is looking
at us seriously because now we're taking all of these twenty years of hypothesis and we're actually going to function and do it. And that's why the doctors on
our group are as important, because yeah, they're saying, we're going to track the results, we're going to publish the results, and maybe this will be something that changes everything long term. Gotcha. Yeah, So we're going
to have doctor William Boozang correct and he's gonna he's your leading research guy, right, and he's going to be in here in a little bit, and these guys are really going to be gathering information that they feel like is pertinent, right, I mean, there will talk to him about I'm really interested in his professional opinion as to why he's involved. So what's intriguing to him
about this organization compared to other things out there that he may have been involved with in the past, you know. And I think that's a critical aspect
of it, because you need these guys who are well smarter than us, right Exactly, they could start to compile this information so it could become more effective. Right. So what as I understand, you got you're going to
pick a state at a time, or multiple states and start doing trials of this idea, this concept basically, yeah, correct, through the NIH, we have three specific states, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. All of
those states have already had some form of suicide prevention. Denver right now,
in particular, has some specific NIH programs running there on firearm storage itself.
So we felt it would be a good place for us to actually layer in and say, hey, we've got that additional option you've been trying to study.
So yeah, that's the NIH portion. Three states really go in and
be be you know, that founding sounding board for people to store their firearms and do some other you know, unique things in the market to help, you know, reduce suicide rate. And really the goal all is and one
of the reasons why we want funding is, you know, we can't just do this in three states. We want to offer this to every veteran in
America and then ultimately every person in America and then ultimately every person. It's
just you know, it's it's expensive. You know, we're all pretty transparent.
It's expensive to you know, ship firearms and store firearms. Whenever firearms
are involved, it gets expen it gets expensive. So you know, hopefully
we can do something. We want to do something for all veterans. And
you know, I don't want to keep saying veterans first, but I think it's kind of a critical point for veterans. I think in the fourth quarter
it was twenty four percent suicide rate increase over the previous fourth quarter. So
well, do you feel like, yeah, and that's crazy, by the way, So do you feel like, not only is it that the veteran thing is near and dear to your heart as it is mine. But it's
a good starting point, right. It's a good way to start to gather
information, right, put together like a cohesive game plan, narrow it down to those states that you're talking about for starters, you know, kind of refine it and then kind of take it to other states and ultimately to all the states. Right, I mean, it's got to be nationwide eventually.
That's the whole point, right does. And the other thing that's great about
starting with veterans. One hundred percent of the veteran community has handled the firearm,
so we know if we ship them a label and say, you know, let's get this thing to our facility, there won't be any concerns about safe handling. We know that they're capable of handling it safely and shipping it
safely, and they'll communicate transparently, you know, transparently with us as well.
They're not going to be ambiguous. I think about the expectations, which
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I could say is call eight one one before you dig. And I guess
one of the things with veterans too, is apparently if if a veteran is looking to take his life, he's ninety percent chance he's going to use a weapon of because of his training and his understanding of what it is, and for a multitude of whatever the reason is. That's just statistically correct, right.
So idea that of holding these weapons now it's sticky, right, You're not taking anybody's weapons. This is where everybody gets up in arms. If
you're not careful, they would voluntarily relinquish the weapons for you to hold for the period of time until they're ready to have them back without any kind of paperwork that says when when, and they can and can't get it back.
And that's a really important factor here, because no one's given you anything they if they think you're trying to take it from them, because you know, that's a really important thing. A lot of these guys and women have fought
in wars for us, have served in the military, and this is something that's important to them. They want to keep that right, and so we
just have to be very clear. I think the function of this is one
of voluntary, voluntary surrendering of the weapons to a situation where they could be secure, and then when they want them, they get them back, and I think that's really I think that's really important that people understand that clearly is and there's a lot of like ATF specific things that we have to do with these firearms to make sure that you know, when they come on site, they're labeled correctly so that it can be associated to the person that's you know, sent it in for storage, so then when it's returned, it's you know, returned to the right person. And you know there'll be some ATF
compliant engraving and things of that nature on id TAG. So we've gone a
long ways on making sure that this was something that everybody was going to be able to pay attention to and there wouldn't be any scrutiny on the legality sides, just to make sure that everybody's taken care of. So tell me about
these grants a little bit more, because I'm curious, like, what what is it? What did you have to do to get the attention of the
National Institute of Health, Because they get submitted what tens of thousands of ideas like yours or in the same vein to prevent different things out there, and then it gets scrutinized and then they decide who's getting the grant and that's going to help with the funding. Correct. Yeah, so you know, we're
still in review, so hopefully we you know, we all the boxes and we score, you know, there's scoring criterias to each project that you pass, and you know, we you know doctor Floor, who we don't have with us today, he actually has done grants for about twenty five years with the NIH and he's you know, pretty confident in our scoring position. So
we feel pretty good about how we're going to score. And really it is
just about you know, getting some funding to start doing some research. And
I think once we start publishing the actual results from the NIH standpoint, I'm sure we'll have extended funding. That's great. I mean, to me,
this is uh, you know, I just I'm I'm pretty impressed by it.
I mean overall, and I'm sure it's there's a lot more of the background and the technical side of it. But what I like about it is
it's a pretty simple thing to understand, you know, and it's a real functional thing. So yeah, so what's next, I mean, what's next
for Firearms Institute. Yeah, We've got a couple of things we're working on.
We're actually working with the Native American communities. That suicide is really high
and prevalent in that neck of the woods. So as we as we grow,
we're going to grow from veterans to Native American communities, uh, and then see where we can go from there. On the national level, we
know there's some real focalized Native American groups that want, you know, some help trying to understand what's going on with their communities and suicide, and we feel like we can we can offer them some amazing opportunities as well, and really just you know, working on that funding piece so we can really identify, you know, how large of a scope we can provide and really help everyone save some lives. So it's pretty much just you know, how you
go out there is pretty much just restricted by how much funding you get essentially, and then the states have to be willing to participate, correct, Yeah, especially with the Native American communities. You know sometimes that's on Native lands
and you know, to do certain things, well, you know, we want to make sure we sure real well yeah, yep, great, I mean I think this is uh, look, I mean we you know, we know each other. We've been talking about this for a while, and
that's really what's had me, you know, interesting to have you on.
And I think that, I mean, gosh, there's like I said before, there's very few things more important than human life. And and I think
this again. I'm a hands on guy, right, I build things for
a living, and I like the function of it. Right, it has
a tangible function, which is what I think is why these doctors are interested and why you know, the National Institute of Health is interested in it.
And I'm just surprised that no one's ever come up with it. So kudos
to you, because complicated it probably is, right, it's not stay up at night. Yeah, well there you go. But you know what,
it's these kind of ideas that change the world. And that's what it's about,
really, you know, changing the world and saving people one life at a time. We've talked about this. If this saves one human life and
you take your whole rest of your life working on this along with everyone else involved, if you save one life, it's all worth it. It's so
it's so no brain, you know. That's how I see it, and
I'm sure you see it the same way. Now, tens of thousands is
way better. But one is worth everybody's effort every time. So how can
you not be signed up for that? You know? Yeah, I think
if you know, as soon as somebody participates, it's a win because you know, we probably saved that that person. And we know we can't save
everyone, and we know we can't understand everyone, and really when we think about it, I mean, i just feel like I have a duty, you know. And I've told you this before. I really feel like I'm
kind of on this spiritual journey right like God said, thou shall go forward and do this, and that's kind of that's where you're at. That's where
I'm at, and it's really weird. I just feel like I'm I can't
really sleep very well because I feel like I'm missing out. You're driven,
Yeah, missing I'm missing out on saving people right now. I mean,
we found a way to have it off the ground, Yeah, you know how to do it. Why can't we get there? You know? Funding
for the NIH is a couple you know, even if that goes through, it's a couple of months from now, you know, and uh, and I feel like we're missing opportunities where we could be doing something today because you know, my organization's ready. You know, we have everything in you guys
are ready. We're just needing the funding. So we've done all the hard
work and now we just need the fund. Now we were talking, so
a lot of these organizations would get approved and then have to go through like years of certain trials. You you you already passed that kind of thing,
correct, Yeah, explain that to me. What this is kind of an
expedited situation from that standpoint. So if someone was to get the same funding
as you, they might have a set of things that they have to do that can take another year and a half or two years after funding for them to even put anything into motion. Correct. Yeah, we we really put
all these pieces together, and we we tried to figure out how to do this for for a while, and you know, really working with our local you know, congressional districts and senators offices, we kind of came together as a group and said, look, you know, you got to have this thing set up, and we submitted our paperwork on January the fourteenth of this year to be recognized as a five to one three And you know, you
and I joked around about this and i'd't even catch it until you mentioned it to me. I got the recognition letter on March the fourth, and you
were like, mar dude, March the fourth, March fourth. So yeah,
I mean it was just a catastrophic meltdown from others. I'm sure if
they knew we got recognized in less than sixty days, because you know, when we first got our letter back, it was like, you know, let's be twelve to eighteen months. So just the help we've received from others
to get recognized as a nonprofit, to get our grant paperwork together in a short period of time, to being on here with Paul talking about our organization.
I mean, it's just it's just too it's just too well orchestrated for me to take any any credit. And I can appreciate, Look, you
know, these things take time, but I can appreciate your impatience kind of towards the situation because it's obvious that I don't know what the numbers are, but I know there's as many as twenty two veterans who are taking their own lives daily. I know that's a number that's out there, and well,
we're not sure. Twenty two. Yeah, I love the twenty two.
I just think, like, you know, that's what you're looking at.
So every day it's not done, you're losing people, and you know, look, maybe the idea is you can't save everyone, right, but it's one more thing that's not out there now that could really make a difference.
And so I just think it's Hey, I think it's important to have a message of hope, which is what this is, right, It's important to take an approach that no one's ever taken before. And it's kind of an
epidemic type scenario we're in, right it is. And nobody wants to talk
about this. Nobody wants to talk about in the private sector, no one
wants to talk about it, in the military sector. It doesn't matter where.
Nobody wants to talk about suicide. It's just a taboo thing that people
just stay away from. And it's a real problem. I think most people
would admit that in some way they've known someone or have known someone who's known someone who's taken their own life. And there's a lot of people out there.
And that's just the United States I'm talking about, you know, So this is a real problem in our country and we have to start talking about it, and we have to start putting things into motion like you are.
So listen, man, I just I want to say kudos. I mean,
I know you've gotten some divine intervention and guidance through this and I operate that way creatively, and that's what's happening with you. And I feel like,
look, this is a brilliant idea, and you know that it's taken a lot of math on your side to try and figure out all these nuances to even put in for the grant, right correct, And that's like you said under review, But you feel you've got a strong position. That's a
lot of work you've had to put in just to get to where you are.
So you got to have some patience about it. Didn't kick us out,
We moved forward, how about that? So listen, man, I
just think so much of what you're doing. I just think it's it's such
an important thing and you should be really proud of yourself putting this thing together.
And you know, I think certainly, and I didn't know him, but we've spoke, your father would be extremely proud of you because this is this is like a world changer. This is not like, this is not
like itsy bitsy type stuff. This is like monumental global game changer at the
end of the day. And I think, I know what the offset where
we're talking about is what you're what you have to start with. But the
layers to this thing and what it could become in helping people across the country, it's almost unlimited where it can grow and what it could turn into.
We've talked about various different angles and positions it can take on for the betterment of the country. And we don't have to get into all that because right
now you've got to start somewhere, and that's kind of what you're doing.
You're just getting started and so getting into these states, getting the studies going, seeing how it works, have the doctors go in there, start compiling all this information to make you more efficient and make this thing work better.
I mean, you can't ask for more than that. Yeah, we're excited
about it, and it's funny to your point. I mean, we actually
crafted this project from the beginning as a nationwide project, and now we've scaled it down so people can understand it to just real small pieces. So I
think, you know, I think it's gonna be awesome, and I really think that, you know, once people understand why we're different. You know,
there's twenty thousand suicide prevention donation buckets out there. But I think once
people realize why we're different and that, you know, we can store a firearm, nobody else can do it. We'll store the key for a lock.
Nobody else has really wanted to do that. They can send us a
piece of a firearm and we can store that. I mean, there's so
many options that somebody can do that makes them comfortable. And they're in charge,
not the medical field, not nobody else. It puts them in the
driver's seat and they can make the decision for themselves like that. Yeah,
you know, they're they're not about giving anything up, not like that, right, they're not giving any freedoms up. Put it that way, right,
But I didn't even know that. So they could just they can send
you their barrel, send me a barrel, so they'll start a complete gun.
So if they want to keep the rest to send me apart, whatever, let's send send me a functional part and we'll start. That's great.
And so we're we we haven't said no, We've only added yes, you know, to to the project. Right, And in the educational part,
and I mean it's really important that everybody knows. The goal is to educate
people. We're going to offer this service. It's going to happen either way.
We're going to offer this service. And when we're done, I want
people to be able to sit back and say, you know, I remember when Snapper was talking about, you know, judging his father and not understanding his father. And I want them to be able to say, hey,
you know, I'm a twenty year old kid. Maybe I need to think
about this and say, I don't know. You know, I don't really
know. I didn't know. And I hope that people understand as we move
through this and they start learning about our organization that we don't know and somebody may need somebody to reach out to you. My question is when will all
of this be functioning out there? I mean, at this stage in the
game, could someone send a weapon to you? Could they? It would
be hard to say no. I mean we don't have the funding. You
know, at the moment, we literally are in our incubator, but it would be very hard to say no. And if somebody, you know,
it would be really hard to snay now right, you know how it is, But you know, the sooner we get funding, and the sooner we get some people contributing, and I mean, we want to do this yesterday, for right now. Meanwhile, you're in the stages of waiting for a
grant. Public funding would be absolutely welcome. Obviously, Where do people go
if they want to support this effort. There's a couple of places you can
go. The first and foremost is I would check out our websites Firearms Research
Institute dot org. It talks about our doctor panel on there, talks a
little bit about what we're trying to do, and you can donate directly on our website. We're looking at doing another go fund me here real short which
we can probably Yeah, I'm getting we're gonna figure we're gonna have to give We're gonna have to give something away. That's we're gonna have to get something
going. Yeah, So you know, the or you can call me.
I give you my phone number. That'd probably be outside the box, but
you know, I do feel strongly that you know, if you need something, just email me through that website and you know, if you need me to call you, I'll call you. It's great, perfect, Well,
I appreciate you coming out man, and uh, this is this is just the first of many podcasts I think we're gonna do together because I really wanna.
I want to. I want you back on here when you get that
grant and when things start moving forward. I think we need to kind of
have like the next conversation once you get a little further. Yeah, it's
fantastic because this is like, this is the kind of thing you follow up on. You know, it's not a one and done. It's uh,
you know, this is big stuff, especially when you talk about somebody clicking a button on our website and generating their own shipping label and throwing it at the you know, throwing the item and it comes right to us. I
mean, some cool stuff figured out. Yeah, that's awesome. Cool.
Thanks Paul, Yeah man, thank you. Thank you for listening to the
Paul Junior Podcast. You can find Paul online as Paul Cuttle Junior on Instagram,
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About this episode
Snapper LaGrone, founder of the Firearms Research Institute, discusses a unique approach to veteran suicide prevention by offering voluntary firearm storage to individuals in crisis. This tangible solution aims to reduce impulsive suicides by removing immediate access to firearms while maintaining anonymity and control for participants. The organization collaborates with medical professionals and seeks NIH funding to validate and expand its impact, initially targeting veterans in select states before broader outreach. The conversation highlights the practical, non-judgmental nature of the initiative and its potential to save lives through innovative, research-backed methods.
Paul Jr. sits down with the Founder of the Firearms Research Institute, Snapper LaGrone. They discuss the foundations goals to prevent veteran suicide and how you can help.