Linh Ta, and Lauren Ehrler

Des Moines Register

Editor's note: this story has been updated to include comments from the mother of Tom Arnold's nephew.

In light of his nephew's suicide, actor and Iowa native Tom Arnold penned a column to The Hollywood Reporter expressing the need for more gun control.

His nephew was a 24-year-old National Guard veteran who Arnold wrote was "kicked out" of the Army after he attempted suicide.

Wendy Burkle of Ottumwa was previously married to Arnold’s brother, Mark Arnold. They are parents of the man Arnold wrote about. She said that the piece was full of false information — including the claim that her son was kicked out of the Army after a suicide attempt.

“His dad and I would like to let everyone know that we believe that (Arnold) has embellished the story to make it Hollywood worthy,” Burkle said.

She said she has asked Arnold to stop using her son’s name in his writing.

Arnold claimed in the letter that his nephew was chronically depressed and unsafe to be around around weapons, but that he was able to get a concealed weapon permit from the state of Iowa and buy five guns. Arnold noted that every day 20 veterans commit suicide, and on May 2 his nephew became part of the statistic.

Under an Iowa law enacted in 2011, courts are required to forward records to a national database whenever a person has been “adjudicated as a mental defective” or involuntarily “committed to any mental institution." The FBI uses background checks to prevent the sale of guns to people deemed mentally unfit. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Iowa is among 42 states that have this type of requirement. Five additional states require courts to report to an in-state database only.

Arnold said he has been working with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to try and enact more gun control. He notes he is a gun owner and a supporter of the Second Amendment, but he wants stronger gun legislation brought before Congress.

I wanted to honor my nephew and the other vets and people with mental illness who can legally purchase guns. I want to protect them and my 3-year-old boy and 7-month-old girl when they grow up and I'm not here.

Arnold said he supports a bill that would give veterans annual mental and physical health checkups and ban guns for "domestic abusers, violent felons or people on the terrorist watch list."

Beyond assisting veterans, Arnold wants to increase awareness about suicide. Before going on to become a stand-up comedian and star in "True Lies," Arnold attended Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa. Each year he wrote that he gives two full-ride writing scholarships to the school. After reading the top 100 applications, he realized that 20 percent of the applicants had lost a parent to suicide. Another 20 percent had lost a sibling or friend to suicide, Arnold wrote.

It's weird because I could tell a bunch of these were from near my hometown in Iowa. It's a small place and yet I wasn't aware of the suicides because, like my own family, people don't talk about it.

More than 60 percent of people in the United States who die from guns die by suicide, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

You can read the rest of Arnold's column here: Tom Arnold Pens Passionate Essay Arguing for Gun Control After Losing Nephew to Suicide