The most deaths by guns... (1 Viewer)

[Bleu Raeder]

...are suicides.

Suicide Is Leading Cause Of Gun Deaths, But Largely Absent In Debate On Gun Violence

The reality, though, is that congressional leaders don't appear to be making mental health issues, never mind the epidemic of suicide, much of a priority outside of the gun debate. A Senate Democratic leadership aide said he wasn't aware of any related legislation this year. House Republican leadership aides pointed to work being done by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees health issues. That committee has held a couple of subcommittee hearings relating to mental illness, but there are no signs of any bills heading to the floor. A committee spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

 

[seandroog]

I read something about this a while back. I think it is an angle that hasn't been discussed. Here is an interesting bit about suicide in bloody old england:

“Sticking one’s head in the oven” became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost half the nation’s total.

Those numbers began dropping over the next decade as the British government embarked on a program to phase out coal gas in favor of the much cleaner natural gas. By the early 1970s, the amount of carbon monoxide running through domestic gas lines had been reduced to nearly zero. During those same years, Britain’s national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level ever since.

How can this be? After all, if the impulse to suicide is primarily rooted in mental illness and that illness goes untreated, how does merely closing off one means of self-destruction have any lasting effect? At least a partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass.

Then here in the states someone thought to look into if people talked down from the Golden Gate bridge ended up killing themselves, after given time to think about it.

Since its opening in 1937, the Golden Gate bridge has been regarded as one of the architectural and engineering marvels of the 20th century. For nearly as long, the Golden Gate has had the distinction of being the most popular suicide magnet on earth, a place where an estimated 2,000 people have ended their lives. Over the years, there have been a number of civic campaigns to erect a suicide barrier on the bridge, but all have foundered on the same “they’ll just find another way” belief that made the Ellington barrier so contentious.

In the late 1970s, Richard Seiden (A clynical psychologist) set out to test the notion of inevitability in jumping suicides. Obtaining a Police Department list of all would-be jumpers who were thwarted from leaping off the Golden Gate between 1937 and 1971 — an astonishing 515 individuals in all — he painstakingly culled death-certificate records to see how many had subsequently “completed.” His report, “Where Are They Now?” remains a landmark in the study of suicide, for what he found was that just 6 percent of those pulled off the bridge went on to kill themselves. Even allowing for suicides that might have been mislabeled as accidents only raised the total to 10 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[Brad Mojo]

You simply can't compare the scourge of guns on our streets to the scourge of gun suicide. You see, if a person really wants to kill themselves, and can't find a gun, then they are just going to find another weapon to use, like a knife or a blunt instrument.

On the other hand, if a person is going to kill another person or people, and they can't get a gun, then, oh wait.........

 

[buzd]

You simply can't compare the scourge of guns on our streets to the scourge of gun suicide. You see, if a person really wants to kill themselves, and can't find a gun, then they are just going to find another weapon to use, like a knife or a blunt instrument.

I haven't heard of many suicides performed by blunt instrument.

 

[mister pc]

You simply can't compare the scourge of guns on our streets to the scourge of gun suicide. You see, if a person really wants to kill themselves, and can't find a gun, then they are just going to find another weapon to use, like a knife or a blunt instrument.

On the other hand, if a person is going to kill another person or people, and they can't get a gun, then, oh wait.........

That's totally false. Study behavioral psychology and you'll learn that the interface significantly influences the behavior. Take two scenarios

a) suicide can be completed by the push of a button
b) suicide requires painful cutting of flesh with a knife

You definitely will not see the same results in both cases.

 

[SaintBrad]

That's totally false. Study behavioral psychology and you'll learn that the interface significantly influences the behavior. Take two scenarios

a) suicide can be completed by the push of a button
b) suicide requires painful cutting of flesh with a knife

You definitely will not see the same results in both cases.

This is true

 

[SaintBrad]

That's totally false. Study behavioral psychology and you'll learn that the interface significantly influences the behavior. Take two scenarios

a) suicide can be completed by the push of a button
b) suicide requires painful cutting of flesh with a knife

You definitely will not see the same results in both cases.

This. Theres nothing we can do about it though without getting ridiculous and infringing on rights.