The Star.com reports on something of interest to Americans, or at least it should be.
In The States it's not quite as high as 75%, but the majority of gun deaths here are suicides as well. Do you think that fact is overlooked in gun control discussions? Whenever it does come up the pro-gun crowd comes up with one of their three standard responses. I think they must memorize these inanities.Suicides. Suicides dropped dramatically in Canada thanks to the federal gun registry. Not only do statistics prove as much, it stands to reason that with improved gun safety comes decreased gun fatalities; with fewer tools-of-choice for suicides available, fewer suicides occur. It just makes sense.
Here are the stats. A home where there are firearms is five times more likely to be the scene of a suicide than a home without a gun: Canada Safety Council. The Institut national de sante publique du Québec has assessed that the coming into force of the Firearms Act is associated, on average, with a reduction of 250 suicides (and 50 homicides) each year in Canada. That’s nearly one life saved per day. StatsCan figures are stark: firearm suicides have dropped 48 per cent since the enactment of the very law that the Conservatives seek to repeal.
1. People who want to kill themselves have a right to do so
2. People who want to kill themselves will find another way if no gun is around
3. What about Japan? (this one was debunked here)
What's your opinion? Are suicide rates even a greater reason for strict gun control laws than the traditional gun violence?
My belief, and I'm not alone, is that in most cases suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. One study interviewed survivors of gun suicide attempts. Every one interviewed expressed gratitude to have failed. The absense of gun availability, as proven by the Canadian experience, ensures fewer suicides.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Taking the gunloon arguments in order:
ReplyDelete1. I believe people should have the right to suicide in cases where they make an informed decision. For example, if someone has a terminal illness or disability where quality of life diminishes severely. OTOH, suicide should never be an option in cases where a person is otherwise physically healthy and can be helped.
2.Simply untrue. Many suicides are the result of impulses. IOW, a person feels his or her life has collapsed and decides to end it. Usually such impulses are fleeting and can be resolved by either support and/or further reflection.
The presence of a gun provides an immediate avenue to suicide as it doesn't require much planning or subterfuge. Especially for the young.
"Here are the stats. A home where there are firearms is five times more likely to be the scene of a suicide than a home without a gun: Canada Safety Council."
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe what they're really saying is that mental/emotional imbalance is more likely in a home where gunz are kept? Now that sounds preposterous; almost as preposterous as suggesting that the U.S., among the civilized nations on the planet,is the only country where the preponderance of suicides committing the crime with a gun is doesn't mean that maybe we need to think about limiting access to gunz.
democommie wrote:
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds preposterous; almost as preposterous as suggesting that the U.S., among the civilized nations on the planet,is the only country where the preponderance of suicides committing the crime with a gun is doesn't mean that maybe we need to think about limiting access to gunz.
In comparably industrialized / civilized societies, like Switzerland, there appears to be a direct connection between the number of suicides by firearm, and the number of firearms in the home.
This is older, but it makes the point well:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046149.htm
And this from wikipedia, on gun violence:
During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun,[14] as well as a sharp overall increase in a suicides among those age 75 and over.[15] In the United States, firearms remain the most common method of suicide, accounting for 52.1% of all suicides committed during 2005.[16] Unlike in the U.S., suicides committed with guns in countries where firearms are uncommon are similarly uncommon (an obvious statistic, since guns are not as available).
Similarly, where there are fewer guns, there are fewer firearm homicides and fewer firearm accidental deaths. Ditto for all of those categories for injuries from failed attempts.
And to address a point from Jadegold, euthanasia, or assisted euthanasia, where there is a clear issue of ending pain and dying with dignity is separate from suicide.
In those locations that allow for euthansia, it is medically administered, after careful examination by medical professional, so as to end pain and suffering WITHOUT resorting to violence. It is about having control in how one ends an imminent clearly terminal condition.
Suicide differs from that by definition, particularly by violent means; the very meaning of euthanasia is to ease death. That is the opposite of blowing your head off, particularly given how many people botch the job.
Euthanasia is more closely akin to hospice care, where every effort is made to eliminate pain so far as possible shortly before death.
To use the terms as interchangeable is to try to confuse the issue in a manner which is intellectually dishonest.
Not that THAT is anything new from the gun nutz crowd.
"Suicides dropped dramatically in Canada thanks to the federal gun registry."
ReplyDeleteThat is an asinine statement to make. So just how does a registered gun reduce suicides?
"Hmm, I want to off myself but the only gun I have is registered. Better just put my pants on and go to work then...Damn registry!"
Are suicides a better reason for strict gun control than traditional gun violence? And from the study that you linked to, is reducing the prevalence of guns the way to reduce suicide by gun?
ReplyDeleteNo.
Whatever happened to asking persons to be responsible for their own actions? That's my answer.
Dog Gone,
ReplyDeleteGiven the choice between shooting myself or letting some doctor inject me after asking a bunch of fool questions, I'll take myself. It's that personal choice thing, again.
As Dorothy Parker once said, "You should always carry a gun. Not to shoot yourself, but to know that you're always making a choice."
(Before you pounce, do admit that the lady was funny.)
FWM is right, gun registration would not affect the suicide rate directly.
ReplyDeleteBut gun registration is part of an overall program of strict gun control policies, which taken as a whole, reduces criminal gun violence as well as suicides.
Trying to turn it into a cartoonish picture of one guy with one registered gun who wants to kill himself, is, what's that cool latin expression for reducing the argument to an absurd point?
Cool Latin expression meant to show the absurdity of something? A classmate of mine in college told me that in Los Angeles Spanglish, the saying is, "?Como que huh?"
ReplyDeleteBut you were looking for reducto ad absurdum, eh?
You meant reductio ad absurdum.
ReplyDeleteI knew it I just wanted to be cute.
Same here, Mikeb302000, same here.
ReplyDelete