Tribute to Sheila Salley

On June 10, 2011 my mother, Sheila DuCros Salley, traveled from her home in Dover, New Hampshire, across the state border into Maine. She arrived at the Kittery Trading Post and purchased a gun for $394.94. She drove home to New Hampshire, test fired the weapon in a couple of her closets, then fired it one more time into her head, immediately ending her life. Only by sheer luck was no one else injured or killed with her naïve practice shooting through walls.

My mother was responsible for her own choice and actions. However, this death could have been prevented.

My mother managed to successfully be interviewed by different people in the gun department at the Kittery Trading Post and none of them suspected she was a danger to herself. But, if the rules and regulations for purchasing a handgun were different this sale would have not taken place. No one who knew my mother at the time would say that she was in the state of mind to own a weapon.

If Maine and New Hampshire had a gun licensing system in place, things might have turned out differently. New York and New Jersey both require references before you can get a license to buy a handgun. If Maine and New Hampshire had a waiting period things might have turned out differently. Rhode Island and Maryland both have a seven day waiting period before you can purchase a handgun.

Would my mother still be alive if a reference phone call had taken place or a waiting period was required and the gun sale had been prevented? Would she have been determined to find another method? Would we have been able to help her view life with a new perspective and hope to get through a difficult time? There is no way to know.

But researchers do know that when it comes to suicide, means matter. Guns are more lethal. They’re quick. And they’re irreversible. People who attempt suicide by other means are less likely to die. And nine out of ten people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide later.

If I had been given the opportunity to say, “No this woman is not mentally healthy enough to own a weapon.” I know we could have tried to help her another day.