Should suicides be included in the gun crime / gun death debate?

[ivwshane]

Those numbers should make us step back and take a look at where our priorities are at.

Why make a big deal out of guns when vehicles and alcohol kill so many people?

Will taking guns out of the home reduce the number of suicides, probably so. But what are the chances of the government taking every gun out of the nation? zero to none.

What we need are laws that allow intervention for those who are depressed and prone to suicide.

I agree, so who pays for this? The logical answer would be that it would be free through health care coverage but we know how you feel about "socialism". Most services that are provided by the government are paid via a related tax. However I doubt you would be for a gun and/or ammo tax that went towards mental health.

Let me know when you (as in people like you) are ready to actually solve the problem.

 

[soulcougher73]

No. End of story. I am right and anyone who disagrees is dumb

But actually, no.

 

[Texashiker]

I agree, so who pays for this? The logical answer would be that it would be free through health care coverage but we know how you feel about "socialism". Most services that are provided by the government are paid via a related tax. However I doubt you would be for a gun and/or ammo tax that went towards mental health.

Let me know when you (as in people like you) are ready to actually solve the problem.

I wish I had an answer.

I think part of our problem is humans are short term thinkers. We think about tomorrow, end of the week, next week, next month, but have problems thinking about 5 years from now.

How can society deal with these impulse people who kill themselves?

 

[Cozarkian]

I mean we don't separate auto accidents based on why they happen when talking about auto accidents do we?

We don't separate auto accidents by the cause of the accident, but we do separate auto deaths. People committing suicide by driving a car off a cliff or into a lake, etc... would be in the 18,519 non-firearm suicides and intentional hit-and-runs would be in "homicide by other and unspecified means."

Also, maybe we should separate auto accidents by cause. It would be interesting to see statistics on weather-related, cell-phone related, and speeding-related accidents.

 

[fskimospy]

The real problem with firearm death rates is there is no way to tell how many would be replaced by other causes. How many potential suicides would jump off a bridge or try to overdose on drugs if they didn't have access to a gun? How many murderers would use a knife or a baseball bat if they didn't have access to a gun?

Another problem is determining how many murderers/suicides would still be able to get access to a gun if they were illegal.

Until you can isolate those numbers, stating there is ~11,000 deaths from firearms isn't particularly useful for evaluating whether to ban firearms.

We do know that suicides using a gun are far more likely to be successful than ones that use other means, however.

 

[Texashiker]

We do know that suicides using a gun are far more likely to be successful than ones that use other means, however.

We also know men are more likely to use a gun for suicide than women.

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp/publications/firearmsuicide.pdf

Page 3 of the link has graph.

 

[Cozarkian]

We do know that suicides using a gun are far more likely to be successful than ones that use other means, however.

That just makes it harder to isolate the useful information, because now you need to determine how many people would make successful attempts and how many would make unsuccessful attempts if they didn't have access to a gun.

 

[Genx87]

I think suicides should be separated from gun deaths via crime.