With Guns, Despondency Can Be Deadly

For seven years, my family and I have lived on a quiet L-turn street in Anaheim, where the only disturbances come from neighborhood cats and Disneyland’s fireworks. Everyone there likes it that way.

But our tranquillity took a surreal jolt Tuesday with a high-speed police chase, a despondent teen with a gun and a tragic attempt at suicide. . . .

It had already been a trying morning. Just after 7 a.m., I had to make a second trip to my son’s school because he’d forgotten something. I’d just returned home and stepped out of my car when some idiot in a Toyota came barreling around the L-corner at lightning speed. His speed forced him to make a wide turn. Because we live near the apex of the L, he came recklessly close to our driveway. And because an RV parked at the corner blocked my view, it took a split second to realize that a cop with flashers flashing was hot on this kid’s tail.

Then another cop car. Then another. Then two more.

Despite his speed, I got a clear look at the young man inside the Toyota. He stared straight ahead intensely, both hands on the wheel, without a glance into the rear-view mirror. You knew that this kid knew that things were out of control.

I called The Times’ city desk to alert someone, then left with my daughter for her day care. As we drove down the length of the L, we saw a small side street cordoned off with yellow police tape, cop cars everywhere. Whatever crisis was going on had not left us after all.

I called my city desk again; the morning editor had already gotten the word. The young man, she said, was despondent over a breakup with his girlfriend. Just moments before, the chase had ended back near the house of the girlfriend, one of my neighbors. He had shot himself twice before police could break into his car and get to him.

Now I felt like the idiot. Suddenly someone’s busting up our peace and quiet didn’t seem very important.

The youth, 17, remains in critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange with gunshot wounds to his head.

‘Suicide Becomes Much Easier’

So much about this story is so sad. Teens reach levels of deep despondency more often than we think. Despondent teens have access to handguns more often than they should.

Each column I write about the danger of guns in the home always enrages some readers. Often it’s those who share my views on other topics; they just hate me on guns.

I’ll risk their anger once more because of something one of my colleagues said to me. Louise Roug, one of our police-beat reporters, writing about this young man’s suicide attempt, was shaking her head too.

In her native Denmark, she said, “guns aren’t as prevalent. So teens in depression there just go get drunk. But here, where handguns are so accessible, suicide becomes much easier.”

The proof was in this young man’s story.

Recently, I attended a seminar on suicide sponsored by the Orange County Coalition for the Prevention of Violence. One theme came out: At least some help is available for teens; the problem is getting them to accept the help and pinpointing which teens need it.

Before they find a gun.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, a group that avidly seeks severe gun controls, reports that 67% of adolescent suicides are by handguns. And Time magazine this week cites an American Journal of Public Health study finding that in 43% of the homes with children where guns are kept, the weapons are either not locked up or not fitted with trigger locks. It also says 22 million children live in homes with handguns.

Details are sketchy about how this young man got access to a gun. Anaheim police do say that he got the gun at his family home, before he stole his parents’ car. Reports are that he was on his way to the girlfriend’s house and had threatened to harm her. That’s why the police were already there when he first arrived, leading to the high-speed chase.

It’s going to be a long time before I forget the intensity etched in that young man’s face, just steps away as he passed my family home. But another image will stay with me too, one I didn’t see but know through the newspaper’s account of this tragedy: the police, breaking his car windows with beanbag pellet shots, desperately trying to save his life.

Tuesday was a day none of those officers will ever forget either.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.