Gun availability plays a major role in suicides.Using a little common sense, it's easy enough to figure how this works. Given the high lethality of a gunshot to the head, attempting suicide in this manner is more likely to succeed than using a razor or pills, which are the other most common means.The Killers saxophonist Tommy Marth was found dead in his back garden at his home in Las Vegas, the Guardian reports. Marth apparently took his own life, with the Clark County coroner recently coming on record to announce a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head found on the corpse when services arrived. He was 33.
Common sense doesn't work for the pro-gun crowd, I'm afraid. They have too much bias for that. So what might work is this.
Based on the theory that many people who attempt suicide are not completely dedicated to the idea but are acting on impulse or acting out of a temporary period of difficulty, we can assume that if unsuccessful they'd be glad and never attempt it again. This was proven in a survey some years ago in which survivors of gunshot suicide attempts were interviewed. Every single one expressed gratitude for having survived the close call and expressed a desire to live.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Choice plays a major role in suicides. Using a little common sense, it's easy enough to figure how this works. But common sense doesn't work for the freedom-loving crowd. They have too much bias for that.
ReplyDeleteBased on the theory that many people who exercise choice don't mean what they do or are incompetent in their choices, we can conclude that they would be grateful to live in a world without choice. Common sense tells us that taking away choices will make us all safer.
There--I translated the authoritarian message into English for you.
Greg, are you such a cold-hearted bastard that you can't have a little compassion for people who commit suicide? Are you so rigid in your obsession with freedom and choice that you fail to see the big picture?
DeleteMany people who commit suicide or attempt to do so are suffering from a TEMPORARY problem. The very fact that they take such a drastic decision indicates that in many cases they are not of sound mind.
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem - in most cases.
As others have suggested here, some suicide "attempts" are a cry for help and not a serious effort. There were a few histrionic types like that in my high school. We all knew that they didn't really mean it, but they got attention anyway. Anyone who uses a gun who doesn't really intend to die is an idiot.
DeleteBut with regard to your question, a person can wear himself out by caring too much or too loosely. Many people cannot be helped because they refuse to listen to good sense. I've seen this with many students. If they would just take a few simple steps, they'd pass the class, but they always have one or another excuse for why they can't. There comes a point at which others just have to back away and leave people responsible for themselves.
I'll help anyone whom I can help when the person in need will succeed after the help, but it's not my job to sustain people who refuse to help themselves.
Suicide method is self-selected. If you really want to die, you use a gun. If you just want attention, you use pills or a razor.
ReplyDeleteHow would you possible know that? You're making shit up which supports your hands-off mania about guns.
DeleteOk, Mike. So you say people who survive suicide attempts express a desire to live afterwards. You also compared gun attempts with razors and pills. So would you say those razor/pill people also don’t repeat their attempts? You know where I am going with this, don’t you?
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't.
DeleteIt has been my experience that those “cry for help” attempts (like taking pills or making cuts on their wrists) are often repeated. Do you agree?
DeleteYeah, that sound right. The cry-for-help ones repeat, but the real attempts don't.
DeleteDoesn't that argue for restriction of guns?
No, it doesn't. It argues for responsibility. Besides, since anyone potentially can commit suicide, how would you eliminate the risk without banning guns? Again, you may think that you don't want to ban guns, but that's because you don't think through the implications of your proposals.
DeleteGuns are practically ubiquitous now, thanks to you and your friends and your leaders in the movement. This could be changed without total bans, then some of the people who get depressed and say "fuck it," might not have a gun handy to do the job right.
Delete