Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides [View all]

[billh58]

How often we hear this repeated by the right-wing gun nut crowd, almost always accompanied by claims that if a gun is not available, people with suicidal tendencies will just use a rope, or slit their wrists, or jump off a bridge, or use lawn furniture. This is a standard ILA/NRA/GOA right-wing talking point, and is a "half-truth" at best, and at worst an outright lie.

From the International New York Times:

When Americans think about deaths from guns, we tend to focus on homicides. But the problem of gun suicide is inescapable: More than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide.

Suicide gets a lot less attention than murders for a few reasons. One big one is that news organizations generally don’t cover suicides the way they do murders. There’s evidence that news attention around suicide can lead to more suicides. Suicide is more stigmatized and less discussed than homicide.

But, as a matter of public health, gun suicides are a huge problem in the United States. Suicide is the second-most common cause of death for Americans between 15 and 34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Across all ages, it is the 10th-most common cause of death, and caused 1.6 percent of all deaths in 2012.

Not all of those suicides are by gun, but a majority are. And while some people feeling suicidal impulses will choose another method if a gun is not at hand, public health researchers cite two reasons guns are particularly dangerous: 1) Guns are more lethal than most other methods people try, so someone who attempts suicide another way is more likely to survive; 2) Studies suggest that suicide attempts often occur shortly after people decide to kill themselves, so people with deadly means at hand when the impulse strikes are more likely to use them than those who have to wait or plan.

That means that strategies that make suicide more inconvenient or difficult can save lives. Guns, when they are in the home, can make self-harm both easy and deadly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html?_r=0

It is a fact that a gun in the home increases the chance of a family member using it to commit suicide by a large margin. Many suicides are not a result of long-term and identifiable mental health issues, but rather are "impulse" decisions - a marital breakup, losing a loved one, etc.

Keeping guns under lock and key and secure should be mandatory and enforceable. If a child "accidentally" shoots themselves or someone else, the owner of the gun should be held responsible and liable. The same standard applies to any harmful use of a gun, including suicide.

The claim that gun owners are overwhelmingly "responsible" is not borne out by the facts, or the everyday news cycle. The lax gun laws passed by right-wing gun lobby corrupted politicians are directly responsible for most gun deaths and injuries in this country. All one need do is compare US gun violence statistics to any other comparable society, and the truth is more than evident.

Elect and support Democrats who are not pawns of the right-wing gun lobby to all levels of our government.