A spouse’s suicide prompts a call for action

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Ed Mahon / PA Post

Jennifer Lugar, whose husband died by suicide with a gun in 2009, listens during a panel discussion on Oct. 1, 2019, at the Chadds Ford Township Municipal Building in Delaware County, Pa.

‘We need to be heard’

Ed Mahon / PA Post

Jennifer Lugar, whose husband died by suicide with a gun in 2009, listens during a panel discussion on Oct. 1, 2019, at the Chadds Ford Township Municipal Building in Delaware County, Pa. (Ed Mahon / PA Post)

CHADDS FORD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Jennifer Lugar’s husband, Scott Spoor, owned a handgun. But she rarely thought about it. When they went on vacation in the mountains of North Carolina, Scott liked to set up milk jugs on tree stumps and shoot at them.

In January 2009, Scott attempted suicide with drugs and alcohol. “I knew he was struggling. But I had no idea that was going to happen,” Lugar said Tuesday. “It seemed out of the blue to me.”

Lugar said she hid her husband’s gun. But months later, after he got a lot of help and he seemed better, she gave it back to him.

“We went to the mountains. He did his silly shooting at milk jugs thing,” she said. “And it was all good. Everything was fine.”

Lugar said she forgot about the gun. But her husband, she said, hit another low point. On Sept. 25, 2009, he shot himself and died.

Today, Lugar is an advocate for extreme risk protection orders. They allow a court to temporarily remove someone’s gun rights if they are a risk to themselves or others. Lugar says having a judge involved would ensure due process rights are protected for defendants, but also ease the burden on families.

“It would have taken the responsibility away from a family in crisis. …You know how difficult it is to know what to do when you’re faced with something that you’re totally unprepared to face,” Lugar said. “I just — I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

I heard Lugar tell her story during a panel discussion in Delaware County on Tuesday, as state Sen. Tom Killion, R-Delaware County, continued his push to get an extreme risk protection order bill through the GOP-controlled General Assembly. Lugar has told her story before, but it’s still difficult to repeat.

“It is no fun to be sitting here crying in front of strangers,” she said Tuesday, but, “we need to be heard.”

Let me know what you think about Lugar’s story and Killion’s proposed legislation. You can drop us a line at the Listening Post.

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