Guns DO kill people
Suicide Rates Higher in States With the Most Gun Owners
Nearly twice as many people commit suicide in the 15 U.S. states with the highest rates of gun ownership than in the six states with the lowest rates of gun ownership, although the population of the two groups is about the same, researchers said last week.
The difference testifies to the risk that guns pose to gun owners themselves, said researchers led by Matthew Miller at the Harvard School of Public Health. More than 30,000 people committed suicide in 2004, Miller and his colleagues noted in a study they published in the Journal of Trauma; guns were used in more than half of those cases.
States with higher levels of gun ownership consistently have higher levels of suicide, and that is not because of differences in poverty, unemployment, drug addiction or mental illness, according to Miller's study. It compared suicide rates in all 50 states with rates of gun ownership in those states.
Guns are used in five percent of suicide attempts, but more than 90 percent of those attempts are fatal. Drugs account for nearly 75 percent of suicide attempts, but the fatality rate in those attempts is less than 3 percent.
"Removing all firearms from one's home is one of the most effective and straightforward steps that household decision-makers can take to reduce the risk of suicide," Miller said in a statement. "Short of removing all firearms, the next best thing is to make sure that all guns in homes are very securely locked up and stored separately from secured ammunition.
"In a nation where more than half of all suicides are gun suicides and where more than one in three homes have firearms, one cannot talk about suicide without talking about guns."
More information here.
ADDED: Teens are especially at risk for suicide, and guns increase their risk as well. A couple of years ago the 17 year old son of a longtime acquaintance took a gun to a wooded area and shot himself to death.
Nearly twice as many people commit suicide in the 15 U.S. states with the highest rates of gun ownership than in the six states with the lowest rates of gun ownership, although the population of the two groups is about the same, researchers said last week.
The difference testifies to the risk that guns pose to gun owners themselves, said researchers led by Matthew Miller at the Harvard School of Public Health. More than 30,000 people committed suicide in 2004, Miller and his colleagues noted in a study they published in the Journal of Trauma; guns were used in more than half of those cases.
States with higher levels of gun ownership consistently have higher levels of suicide, and that is not because of differences in poverty, unemployment, drug addiction or mental illness, according to Miller's study. It compared suicide rates in all 50 states with rates of gun ownership in those states.
Guns are used in five percent of suicide attempts, but more than 90 percent of those attempts are fatal. Drugs account for nearly 75 percent of suicide attempts, but the fatality rate in those attempts is less than 3 percent.
"Removing all firearms from one's home is one of the most effective and straightforward steps that household decision-makers can take to reduce the risk of suicide," Miller said in a statement. "Short of removing all firearms, the next best thing is to make sure that all guns in homes are very securely locked up and stored separately from secured ammunition.
"In a nation where more than half of all suicides are gun suicides and where more than one in three homes have firearms, one cannot talk about suicide without talking about guns."
More information here.
ADDED: Teens are especially at risk for suicide, and guns increase their risk as well. A couple of years ago the 17 year old son of a longtime acquaintance took a gun to a wooded area and shot himself to death.