Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides

[SecularMotion]

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.

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

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. Can a gun have a built-in "dude is suicidal" sensor?

[Eleanors38]

5. Yes, it's in the breech-block micro chip behind the No Lead Detector.

[branford]

2. Guns don't cause suicide.

Notably, comparable first world western countries with much fewer firearms, such as Canada, Australia and much of Europe, have comparable suicide rates as the USA, and gun control havens like Japan and South Korea have much higher suicide rates.

We all have general suicide problem, not a "gun suicide" problem, and there's no evidence that fewer guns in the USA, no less any gun control measures that have been proposed that could pass constitutional scrutiny, will change our suicide rates.

[flamin lib]

3. Switzerland cut their suicide rate by 25% when the military not letting

soldiers take live ammunition home in 2003 and no increase in other methods of suicide were observed. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23897090

There is abundant evidence that reducing the access to guns will decrease the overall suicide rate.

Only 4% of attempted suicides are successful. Of the 96% that fail only 10% attempt a second time. Of attempted suicides with guns 85% are completed on the first try.

Guns are extremely good at taking life, which is why people who are afraid of other people want one. If that knife or hammer we hear about were all that good at killing people that's what the self defense paranoid would have.

So if the those numbers are real, and I assure you they are, then reducing suicide by gun would reduce the overall suicide rate. As it did in Australia. Yes the overall Aussie suicide rate is close to the US rate (10.6/100,000 vs 12.1 for the US) it has decreased to that from a much higher number since the 1996 gun control act.


USA Suicide 2012 Official Final Data: CW Drapeau & JL McIntosh for the American Association of Suicidology October 2014
(from www.suicidology.org/Portals/14/docs/Resources/FactSheets/2012datapgsv1d.pdf).

[russ1943]

4. There is abundant evidence

that reducing the access to guns will decrease the overall suicide rate as flaming lib and numerous studies have shown.

DanTex posted at the end of 2012 http://www.democraticunderground.com/117295436 a study which demonstrated a suicide rate decrease of 40% when the Israeli Defense Forces changed policy so that soldiers leave their guns on base rather than bringing them home with them over the weekend.
“The results of this study illustrate the ability of a relatively simple change in policy to have a major impact on suicide rates.” http://gsoa.feinheit.ch/media/medialibrary/2010/12/Lubin_10.pdf

[gejohnston]

6. it does cut the number of people drafted

that did not reduce the number of guns, gun ownership or anything else. General gun ownership rate did not decrease, simply a decrease in the end strength of the Swiss military. It doesn't seem like the researchers looked at lack of change in gun ownership. Also, the change in Swiss gun laws are not that significant.
Apparently, people seeking help mattered most. Then again, maybe being in the army sucks that bad.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/at-death-s-door_suicide-rate-down-as-people-learn-to-seek-help/36581508

[Big_Mike]

7. Damn! That's a great pic!! n/t

[Travis_0004]

8. I like using this image

[flamin lib]

9. Next time I'll have the Swiss Military just check with you before trying to curb suicide in the

ranks. Seems that no matter the source, the research or the blatant results of policy changes based on that data you have some obscure criminologist to refute it. Your article is about an out reach program which is good and has been ongoing for 20+ years. My claim was predicated on one policy change in 2003 that netted an immediate decrease in suicides in the ranks. What, you say, that article wasn't written by a criminologist or peer reviewed? Well, then it must be pure fiction!

Or did some mole inside the Swiss military tell you it was a bogus policy change based on hatred for guns? Oh, I got it! The Swiss Military is a Psyops program!! Just like MDA!

[friendly_iconoclast]

11. Do you have something to add that addresses what gej *actually said*?

If so, we'd love to hear it...

[gejohnston]

12. if there was an effect on suicides,

it was simply a by product of a change in doctrine. The previous doctrine, Army 95 and previous, based their national defense policy on the assumption that if WW3 were to start, they would be invaded either by NATO or Warsaw Pact or both. Army XXI simply changed force structure in response to the Berlin Wall falling and the withdrawal of the majority of US and Canadian troops from Europe.
The only affect on gun access was the possible reduction of young Swiss men being forced to have one in the house.

[flamin lib]

13. See, that's why you're not on ignore like so many of the other gungeoneers.

You are so endlessly predictable and entertaining.

The only affect on gun access was the possible reduction of young Swiss men being forced to have one in the house.

So reducing the number of guns in the house had NOTHING to do with suicide reduction but force reduction, that reduced the number of of guns in houses did.

[gejohnston]

14. but that doesn't mean there are fewer guns in the house

chances are, dad still has his. If you want to keep your weapon after you leave the service, you pay ten bucks and the unit armor to disable the full auto function on the SIG. Chances are, these are kids still living with mom and dad when they get drafted. If you are issued a pistol, then you don't even have to pay the ten bucks.

There is no evidence that gun ownership dropped.

Putting people on ignore simply because they don't agree with you or challenge your world view is not liberal. That is why I don't put anyone on ignore.

[flamin lib]

15. I put people on ignore not because of disagreement but

because of disagreeable. Some people simply can't disagree without being total assholes. I also put people on ignore who completely and totally cannot grasp logic (and aren't as entertaining as others).

I also put people on ignore who: insult me, call me names, question my character and question my motives. Things that happen with great regularity elsewhere on DU.

[gejohnston]

16. I can imagine

I'm often astounded at the people who have no logic. I do find a lot of projection. I amazed the number of people who can't put together a valid logical fallacy free argument yet call themselves "rational and logical."

[ManiacJoe]

10. Proper, secured storage is always a good thing.