Guns Don't Cause Suicide
Submitted by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
Homicide rates in the United States have been declining for 20 years as the number of privately-held guns in the US has increased substantially.
In some states, such as New Hampshire and Oregon, which have very weak gun laws, homicide rates are remarkably low, and these states are among the safest places on earth.
As homicide rates have declined, however, and gun-related homicides with them, gun-control advocates have attempted to create a new category of "gun violence" by blaming suicides on access to guns.
Most "Gun Violence" Is Suicide
Note this recent article from The Washington Post which casts suicide as indistinguishable from homicide, and goes on to point out that there were as many firearm related deaths in 2014 as there were deaths that resulted from automobile accidents.
The article rightly notes that thanks to medical science and safety features on automobiles, deaths from car accidents have gone into steep decline in recent years. The article then notes that suicides have been increasing over the same period, but then attempts to connect this rise with access to firearms.
The article never explicitly says that suicides are indistinguishable from homicides, of course — since any rational person can see a large and obvious distinction — but it does imply the two are more or less the same by classifying both firearm-related suicides and firearm-related homicides as "gun violence."
Employing the usual lazy methods of mainstream journalists, The Post fails to provide hard numbers or to direct links to sources, so I'll do it for you:
To come up with this new category of "gun violence" The Post combines the CDC's statistics of firearm suicides (a total of 21,175 in 2013) to the total of gun homicides (a total of 11,201 in 2013). Then it compares this total to the number of accidental automobile deaths, which was 33,804 in 2014. (The article claims there is new 2014 data from the CDC showing more gun deaths than automobile deaths, but the CDC web site has not been updated to reflect this.)
So, overall, as of 2013, there were 32,376 gun deaths and 33,804 automobile deaths. (During that same period, about one-third of automobile deaths were alcohol-related.)
So, yes, according to the CDC, the number of gun-related deaths and the number of automobile deaths are similar — but only if suicides are included.
Contained in all of this, however, is the implied conclusion that were it not for such easy access to guns, the suicide rate in the US would be lower. This is of course pure speculation, and rather baseless speculation at that.
More Guns, Less Suicide Than Much of Europe
Certainly, if we compare the US to other countries, we have no reason to believe that suicides in the US are unusually common. Indeed, the US is very unremarkable in terms of suicide rates. Deborah Azrael at the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center has said "cut it however you want: in places where exposure to guns is higher, more people die of suicide." But, for anyone who can do arithmetic and make simple comparisons, this claim is easily shown to be bunk:
Source. (OECD Data.)
The US comes in between gun-restrictive countries Sweden and Austria, and, of course, has a suicide rates far below that of Japan which is often held up as a paradise of gun-free non-violence. Korea, where privately-owned guns are nearly non-existent, has one of the worst suicide rates in the world. The US also has a suicide rate about equal to Switzerland, which in spite of its reputation as being a country of gun-toters, is estimated to have less than half as many guns per capita as the United States.
Nevertheless, lumping suicides in with homicides is a key component of anti-gun propaganda. The Brady campaign, for example, does not employ homicide rates in its state-by-state analysis. If it did, it would find that the states with the least amount of gun control often have the lowest homicide rates. Instead, Brady relies on "gun violence" rates, which allows it to count states with rock-bottom homicide rates, like Idaho and Vermont, as states with lots of "gun violence." (In the US, altitude appears to correlate more with suicide than gun ownership.)
This is a tricky sleight of hand maneuver, of course, since, when we're talking public policy, what people fear are homicides, not suicides. Even Noah Smith, the Austrian-economics-hating, left-of-center finance blogger admits that classifying suicides as "gun violence" is stretching things a bit:
With accidental gun deaths steady at around 500-600 per year, the bulk of those 32,000 "gun deaths" are suicides...In fact, murder by gun has been falling steadily since the early 1990s. Some of that is due to improvements in emergency medicine, but most is a result of the overall decline in violent crime that America has enjoyed over the last two decades. The fact that overall gun deaths has risen since 2000, despite the fall in murders, suggests that increased gun suicide has accounted for more than 100% of the increase in gun deaths. Obviously, suicide is a tragedy, and I don't want to minimize it. But people aren't panicking over suicide, they're panicking over murder, and gun-related murder is on the way down.
(By the way, in 2013, accidental deaths by firearms was 505 (according to the CDC). That's out of a total of over 130,000 accidental deaths in a country of 300 million people. In other words, the accidental gun-deaths total is extremely small.)
Won't Somebody Think of the Children?
But what about little Johnny? Maybe he won't commit suicide if there are fewer guns around.
First of all, in regards to teenage suicide, we know that the United States is unremarkable in this measure as well. In the 15-19 age group, suicides are less common in the US than in 14 OECD countries (plus Russia):
Moreover, according to the CDC, intentional self harm (suicide) using a firearms is less likely in the lower age groups than suicide by some other means. In the 15-24 age group, for example, more suicides happen by means of something other than a firearm (6.1 per 100,000) than by firearm (5 per 100,000). This is true for all the younger age groups, and we only find that firearms suicides become more common than non-firearm suicides in the 55-64 age group or above.
And yet, we never hear of "rope violence" or "carbon monoxide violence" or "prescription drug violence" when other methods are used for suicide.
More alarming for parents should be the fact that deaths by prescription painkillers alone (whether suicide or accidental) totaled 16,000 in 2013. If we include drug overdoses in general, the total balloons to 46,000 deaths (suicide and accidental) which means that government-controlled or prohibited substances account for more than twice as many deaths as gun suicides, and more than four times as many compared to gun homicides.
Moreover, it is hotly debated as to whether or not anti-depressants might actually increase the likelihood of suicide. There are only a handful of studies on the matter, and they tend to contradict each other.
Given the lack of knowledge over the causes of suicide, perhaps it might make more sense to take a look at why people commit suicide than to fixate on the methods people might use. This appears to be especially obvious given that lack of access to a gun clearly does not prevent the very high suicide rates in Japan and Korea.
But, when it comes to preventing fatalities, only gun ownership is to be a topic of a "national debate."
When a driver recently mowed down diners with her car on the Las Vegas strip, there was no call for a "national debate" over licensing of drivers. And certainly, there is no call for a "national debate" over the prevalence of deadly prescription painkillers in millions of American homes.
Pro-Suicide, Anti-Gun
Even more illogical is the fact that many advocates of gun control who pretend to be greatly concerned over suicide, actually applaud suicide in other contexts, and in some cases, those who claim to be advocating for fewer suicides via their opposition to guns, simultaneously will advocate for more suicide in the form of "assisted suicide" and euthanasia laws.
When Brittany Maynard opted to kill herself rather than suffer from brain cancer, she was treated as a hero by many on the left, and "assisted suicide" has long been a project of the left, which seeks to make suicide easier. We also often hear about how "progressive" Belgium is, where the elderly and children are encouraged to embrace euthanasia.
So, for the pro-suicide, anti-gun party, they should stop pretending to be concerned about suicide, but should instead admit that they merely object to the means of attaining it. They simply want people to die by some other method. That's fair enough, and if adults wish to contract with someone else to poison themselves, that's not the state's business. Indeed, if there are people who would prefer suicide using a third party instead of a gun, it is not legitimate for the state to prevent that. At the same time, let's stop pretending that people who applaud Brittany Maynard while decrying suicide as "gun violence" are interested in suicide prevention. They're not.
(15 votes)
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An additional comment ... I believe that Americans actively resist the notion that their government can be (or even is right now) corrupt. And the reason the citizens refuse to entertain this notion is that they would have to surrender their comfotable lifestyles in order to fix the problem. A solution to a corrupt government is not an easy proposition in the United States due to the vast expanse of the federal government. We would have to dig deep and uproot an entire political process that covers millions of square miles and ensnares hundreds of millions of citizens. Instead, it is easier to continue life under a facade of normalcy. It is human nature which drives this reluctance to recognize and address the problem. As a result, the problem will persist. Unfortunately, I believe it will persist until we reach a truly wide scale humanitarian disaster, at which point foreign nations will have to step in to prevent further death and destruction. By the time foreign forces arrive on our shores, a weakened populace will (unimaginable to us now) welcome the humanitarian aid. This is an unthinkable scenario right now, but I fear that if the US continues down the path it is on, this eventuality is inevitable.
My dad signed up at 17 to fight in the Pacific during WW2 - he required his parents' signature to do this. If he were alive today, he would be on social security - something he'd paid a lot into his whole life. I suppose Obama sees someone like that as a threat ...
(Obama is a despicable scum bag)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXgKAcSb7PI
I think that's why they have VFWs, GMO and remind all old folks to get their flu shot every year. The flu shot often still contains those nasty additives.
Social Security is a fraud. I am in my early 30s. I am legally required to pay into Social Security, so of course I do ... otherwise the long cock of the state gets shoved up my ass and I go to jail. However, I do not anticipate that Social Security will be available to me once I reach the age at which I can start to collect payments. I believe that we will reach an existential economic crisis long before that time arrives. And when the time arrives that Social Security is officially insolvent and stops payment, what are we going to do? Who are we going to blame? Does it even matter what or who caused the insolvency? I argue that it does matter, but the end result is going to be the same. Anyone my age or younger who counts on Social Security is a fool. Anyone who counts on the federal government being able to provide benefits of any sort indefinitely is foolish. Food stamps. Housing assistance. All of these things will go away once the money runs out. And there are countless ways in which "the money can run out," whether by inflation or lack of tax income or whatever. Bottom line is that the current level of government assistance is unsustainable and young people should plan for a life in which such assistance is unavailable.
I honestly fell over laughing when the writer said "New Hampshire and Oregon" are some of the safest places on earth. Has he ever even left the US, or is his definition of "earth" all 50 states?
And for anyone to credit a low gun murder rate to the proliferation of guns, is even funnier.
Why don’t you all start carrying grenades and rocket launches, surely that will make you even safer!
I live in a rural area where every resident of my neighborhood is armed. We don't get any trouble from ne'er do wells.
As far as your straw man re rocket launchers, keep in mind that when the constitution was written citizens could own large bore artillery, which was the most powerful weapon of the day. And, you can own a rocket launcher today legally if you've got the proper paperwork.
When those who wish to impose their will on you by the threat of violence of the firearm variety also wish to deny you the means to defend yourself with a firearm, you have to wonder about the motives.
Lots of suicide 'attempts' are really a cry for help from someone really desperate - I know this, not from personal experience, but from very close in.
Pills give time for someone to come along and 'save' the day.
With a gun, it's pretty much certain, unless you are really inept.
Suicide is about a mental state, not about how it is achieved.
Anyone who is serious about it is likely to pull it off, given the number of possible methods.
1000+ people shot by cops in the US last year. Which chart does that stat show up in?
Handcuffs are more aggressively violent than guns... you can't defend yourself with handcuffs.
If everyone was armed there might be slightly more suicides (easier access - people are lazy,) but the homicide rate would be waaaaay down.
"One mans freedom is another mans prison"
EVERY one has the capacity to be irrational at some point in their life. mix irrationality with guns and you've got death and sucide.
you americans are youre own worst enemies.
if i were the president , by executive order i would make everyone hand in their guns within 6 months. tough.
this was done with gold. it can be done with guns.
If you were an American, you would understand why that would be impossible... and reprehensible.
You must be a gullible fool if you believe the crap on the MSM. You won't hear the term 'gun' without hearing the term 'violence' on the news, despite the fact that over 99.9% of ammo use is non-violent.
Would you want your president/PM to enter your home and confiscate your steak knives just because someone was stabbed in a restaurant?
The overwhelming majority of gun-owners should not be treated like children because of a few people with problems and some MSM hype. This 'lowest common denominator' approach is an insult to responsible adults everywhere. The same approach is being used in education with disastrous results.
Who do you think you are to be giving away someone else's rights?
Hey Tribune Why not just pass a law making suicide illegal?
Suicide IS illegal. You don't own your body until it is paid for (which it will neverl be.) Now get back to work, citizen.
There are things the Progressive Leftys do that freedom loving Americans on the Right don't. First and foremost "Words and Terms matter".. The Progressive continually are first on base with a term in order to denigrate or marginalize the opposition from a political speak standpoint and people on the right appear to me to be out to lunch on this program. I see article after article calling the leftys "gun grabbers" or even here on the Hedge "gun-control advocates" as if there is some legitamacy for stealing our fundamental natural rights, our Constitutional rights. The message and the narrative has to get much more extreme folks. I promote the term "Gun Haters". That is the only acceptable term to use for these people. Gun Grabbers is soft and Gun Control Advocates is lending rediculous support. They are not advocates, they are stealing your freedoms and rights. Lets get engaged folks, this is war. They are GUN HATERS. Try it on for size. Use it all the time. It is factual and it is acurate. Gun Hating Bloomburg, Gun Hating Obama. Gun Hating Clinton, see that was easy.
I've got yer open carry right here:
http://therightscoop.com/black-panther-group-leads-open-carry-black-live...
The government should do something!
Follow the money. Assisted suicide is now in California from what I understand, but not to be seen in the media. I think Oregon has had it for a couple of years.
For the oldsters, about 60% to 70% of the lifetime medical expenses are spent in the last few years of life. The medical industry and lawyers cant get the money if folks go dead. So suicide is bad for the economy, but good for the survivors.
At 75 years old I knew one gun suicide, 3 other suicides, and 8 illegal drug induced deaths, and more due to alcohol. 63 of my years have been as a gun owner with many same type friends.
HOWEVER, in that it is now thought that the mind does not reach maturity until the mid 20s, and youth is given to impulse, locking guns does not take that much effort.
Pay attention to your children.
Lock up your firearms and dangerous drugs. and car keys when in doubt.
You have more accessible options to kill yourselves in America vs. Europe.
Obama believes in cultural preservation of God's greatest gift to the world -- the White male -- hence the gun control strategy. Note: it's fact that white males are offing themselves in increasing #'s, so we have to do something about this.
Next phase will be a mental cleansing, preceded by bans of Fox News, Stormfront, Breitbart, and then ultimately ZH when the stock markets no longer exist.
UN is already working on this one. Emphasis added.
"The report also notes that the most common methods of suicide globally are pesticide poisoning, hanging and firearms. Evidence from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States and a number of European countries reveals that limiting access to these means can help prevent people dying by suicide."
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48637#.Vo4SeberRMw