Do Current Handgun Laws Increase Likelihood Of Suicide?
July 1, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Last night, as I glanced at my Yahoo! homepage was quenching my thirst for knowledge, I found out that of the nearly 31,000 handgun-related deaths in America in 2005, 55 percent were suicides. The article was written in light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling on gun ownership, and also states:
Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.
As I read the article, I found two main arguments related to handgun laws and suicide:
- Handguns in the home make it easier for people to commit suicide.
- People who want to commit suicide are going to commit suicide, regardless of handgun availability.
What are your thoughts on handgun laws when it comes to suicide by handgun statistics? Should we tinker around with our Second Amendment to help decrease the number of completed suicides each year? Or should we leave our laws alone and press on with advocacy for suicide prevention (that doesn’t include gun laws)?
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Gun registries don’t work because people who want to break the law don’t care about the law and will have guns anyway. How many gang members out there have lawfully registered weapons?
If Kimveer Gill wanted to kill a bunch of people he could have driven a car in to a bus stop full of people or a crosswalk. If he did we wouldn’t be screaming about banning cars. He could have stabbed some unsuspecting students with a kitchen knife (one of those big Henckles).
If some previously normal person blows a mental fuse there is no real way to stop them from harming others. All we can do is react quickly, like the police did at Dawson, to stop them.
JWP
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Addiction Recovery California
What’s the old saying? “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
If a home has no guns, there will be fewer opportunities to use a gun as a solution for any problem – including suicide.
@ John – I do tend to feel as if gun laws are for show, somewhat, because like you said, people who really want to do some damage with a gun are going to get one, regardless, or find some other weapon. On the matter of suicide, though, do you think keeping our gun laws intact will also keep the opportunities for completed suicides intact?
@ Chuck – I do agree that the absence of guns would undoubtedly decrease the opportunities for suicide. I don’t think that can be ignored. But then we have the question of, are we as a country supposed to give up our rights to protect those who may want to do harm to themselves? People who, depending on how serious they are about wanting to die, may find other means to kill themselves anyway? I don’t know.