bearingarms.com By Cam Edwards
You might not have heard of Kathleen Gilligan before now, but for several years she’s been making incredible strides in preventing suicides while protecting the right to keep and bear arms; an effort borne out of the tragic loss of her 14-year old son to suicide in 2012. Gilligan currently serves as the suicide prevention coordinator for the pro-2A group D.C. Project, and her design for an app that connects veterans and uses peer-to-peer support to forge connections and a community of like-minded individuals who will look out for each other is now getting notice, attention, and most importantly, funding from the VA.
As part of the agency’s Mission Daybreak effort to reduce veteran suicide, the VA launched a $20-million dollar challenge to find innovative ways to help veterans with their mental health. More than 1,300 applications were submitted, and on Thursday the VA announced that Gilligan’s Sentinel app is one of three second place winners and will receive a $1-million grant to launch the app and start connecting veterans.
The app itself has several components, and one of its strengths is its customization. One of the goals of the app is encouraging veterans to store their firearms safely, but its backbone is a veteran-specific community support network that allows and encourages veterans to look out for each other.
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