Seconds to Spare

Supporters of Nevada’s new safe gun storage law say it can make the difference between life and death

BY Anne Davis

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Warning: This story contains discussion of violence and suicide.

Tom Cruz still remembers the moment he took his wife hostage like it was yesterday. “I snapped,” he recalls, referring to the split-second decision he made to kill his spouse, and then himself, in November 2010. “The only reason I’m alive and she’s alive,” he says, “was her ability to read the situation, listen to things that were being said, and talk me out of it.”

Cruz, a military veteran and father of seven, now recognizes not only the role that mental health played in this episode, but also the dangers of his unsecured firearm, which he used to hold his wife at gunpoint. This is why he now advocates for safe gun storage and is a spokesperson for End Family Fire, a collaboration between the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Ad Council that seeks to educate Americans on the dangers of unsafely stored firearms. With September being National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, this time