Central Florida faces a suicide epidemic using rented firearms

Numerous gun-shops across Central Florida have begun restricting or prohibiting gun rentals in response to a growing number of suicides that occur when customers borrow weapons and use them to take their own lives.

Shoot Straight, the largest independent chain of gun-shops in Florida, has announced that it will be implementing a similar no-rentals policy following a string of suicides in the chain’s eight stores across the state.

Khaled Akkawi, the owner of the Apopka-based chain, says that, while this decision will have a significant economic impact on his business, he has no other choice.

There isn’t an official agency that tracks gun-range suicides but, according to reports from the Orlando Sentinal, there have been 11 in the greater Orlando area since 2009, all of which were committed using rental guns.

Criminal background checks conducted on potential gun renters is prohibited by Florida law. Confidentiality laws also prevent gun-shop owner from having access to a customers’ mental health history. Gun shop owners are complaining that this prevents them from weeding out felons and potential threats.

Gander Mountain Academy was the first store to ban gun rentals, doing so in part to prevent expensive costs that come with a suicide which include lost business, distress payments for employees and customers, and the charges that come with reopening again.

Many gun-shops rely on rentals as a significant portion of their revenue but more and more are considering the threat of suicide to be too much of a risk to continue allowing rentals.

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