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<p>That is incorrect.
I gave the link earlier where the Washington Post gave this “statistic” a rating of Two Pinocchios and even VP Biden admitted that this “may not be accurate”.</p>
<p>But people keep repeating it as if it is true.</p>
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<p>Really? You think there is little research on how to reduce the number of suicides?
What is the mental health profession doing if they aren’t doing any research on suicide prevention???</p>
<p>Good question. Mostly explaining that they can’t do anything about a person’s unfortunate personal choice to take their life and several others along with it, it seems. </p>
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<p>What are you talking about?
The majority of States have liability around this issue and that has not been opposed by the NRA.</p>
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<p>That is because the main root cause is that mentally ill people are killing people.</p>
<p>If it was mainly the “availability of weapons” and (gasp!) “large capacity clips” that caused the violence, based on the number of guns in the country, there would be no one left alive because all those guns and clips would cause people to kill each other.</p>
<p>BTW, which civil rights are you claiming are violated by having a database of the mentally ill?</p>
<p>Re large capacity clips, the shooting in Seattle was prevented from being much worse by the fact that the shooter didn’t have one, and had to stop and reload. That gave a bystander the chance to stop him. The bystander, BTW, was armed only with pepper spray. I fail to see any purpose for a 100-round magazine, other than to kill a lot of people fast.</p>
<p>This is first and foremost a cultural issue. When will we as a society finally stand together against violence?</p>
<p>Pre-teens attempt murder to summon slender-man</p>
<p>74 school shootings since the Newtown tragedy</p>
<p>A whole generation of children growing up in a country at war in Afghanistan and Iraq.</p>
<p>By no means am I excusing the ridiculous proliferation of firearms in our country. Is it that hard to see the Gun industries true motive is profit? Is anyone believing that assault weapons, hollow point bullets, mega sized ammo magazines are needed by hunting enthusiasts or for personal protection?</p>
<p>Where are the peacemakers ?</p>
<p>Individually and collectively we need to support, model, and promote nonviolence. Let’s put more energy into educating kids than incarcerating them. Save the cost of that next video game that would only pollute an impressionable mind and take your kid to the food bank and donate the $50 you saved.</p>
<p>Violence will never be completely eliminated but we can try to value alternatives.</p>
<p>On the 2nd amendment, my understanding and belief was that the intention was to safeguard our nation from tyranny. The concern was that governmental authority could easily run amuck and “well regulated” military forces outside of the federal government would protect against or at least deter federal tyranny. The bottom line is after the revolution they didn’t trust any government and wanted to keep open an option to defend their rights ( even if those rights were as heinous as owning slaves. )</p>
<p>The Brady report quotes 40%, as you will see if you read the link.</p>
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<p>I just happened to listen to a piece on Science Friday last night on suicide prevention. A portion of the discussion was about suicides by firearms. A summary of some of the points in the piece: Suicides number are higher in states with higher gun ownership. A firearm is the most common method of suicide. The odds of suicide are much higher in a household that owns a gun. People who have survived a suicide attempt have been studied, and most of them acted on their suicidal impulses by attempting suicide within 5 minutes of deciding to do so, and the large majority within 20 minutes of it. The majority of people who attempt suicide and are saved/do not succeed do not attempt it again.</p>
<p>So…limit gun ownership and access, and the rate of successful suicides would be expected to go down. I lost a sibling to gun suicide, and I believe that we would have had a much better chance to save him had he not owned firearms.</p>
<p>However, research on gun violence in general has been very restricted. The Center for Disease Control has been restricted by Congress for the last 20 years to zero funding for research on gun violence and the affect on the nation’s health. Of course, this restriction is backed by congress members bankrolled by the NRA. Guess a little sunlight on the truth would be too much for this country to take.</p>
<p>That’s so awful, intparent. Sorry. :(</p>
<p>I have a friend who lost his son this way. Came home after work on his son’s 13th birthday ready to surprise him with his first set of golf clubs. It was too late. By contrast, I know other kids who have had suicidal impulses and no access to guns, and while some of them have ended up in the hospital after taking pills, they are still here.</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4. I read the link. Just because the Brady report quotes the same incorrect number does not make the number correct. </p>
<p>@intparent </p>
<p>Sorry for your loss</p>
<p>The point is that correlation is not causation. If it were, the rate of suicide would be far higher. </p>
<p>That is not the point at all. You are obfuscating. This is based on published epidemiology studies by a Harvard public health professor that were being discussed on the show. Easy access to guns, the impulsiveness of suicidal people, and the higher level of lethal results when attempting suicide with a firearm all come together to show CAUSATION, not correlation.</p>
<p>Well, I for one am fine with Elliot Rodger taking his own life using with whatever method he prefers. I would prefer he not take anyone else with him, however. </p>
<p>Okay… that comment is somewhat offensive to me. How about the other approximately 20,000 people in the US who commit suicide each year with a gun? Are you fine with those? And wouldn’t it have been better for everyone (Elliot Rodger’s victims, his parents, and himself) if he had not had access to guns to start with?</p>
<p>Yes, I figured it would be somewhat offensive to someone but it’s how I feel. Sorry. In that case, he killed the first 3 victims with a hammer and a machete, though. So I’m not so sure it would have been any better. Sadly.</p>
<p>“Easy access to guns, the impulsiveness of suicidal people, and the higher level of lethal results when attempting suicide with a firearm all come together to show CAUSATION, not correlation.”</p>
<p>No.
That is not what the word “causation” means. Even if you put it in all CAPS</p>
<p>My relative had easy access to the beam in the garage and a rope and unfortunately her method was lethal.<br>
If there were a lot more suicides like that it wouldn’t mean the rope was the causation. </p>
<p>@singersdad
As a matter of fact hollow point bullets are more effective self defense rounds. When they hit an object they open up/ flatten out and stop inside the object or person. They are more likely to stop an attacker with less bullets which ironically makes it more likely that the attacker will survive the gun shots. Hollow points are also much much less likely to go through walls or people and hit an unintended target. A round nose full metal jacket bullet can easily pass through a wall inside of a home. </p>
<p>Singersdad the 2nd amendment does NOT reference “well regulated military forces” outside of the federal government. It says THE PEOPLE have the right to keep and bare arms. I don’t think that could be any clearer. </p>
<p>Everyone- clips and magazines are not interchangeable words. What you almost always mean is magazine so please use that word. </p>
<p>Here is a link to an article by the guy in the interview, other readers who are not gun proponents like yourself can draw their own conclusions about causation. I do see that I didn’t remember the statistics on the timing exactly right (a bit under half act within 30 minutes, 70% within an hour, and 85% within 8 hours). Still clearly a short period of time to access a gun if the household does not already own one.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine-features/guns-and-suicide-the-hidden-toll/”>http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine-features/guns-and-suicide-the-hidden-toll/</a></p>
<p>I did not say or try to say that large capacity clips cause people go on shooting rampages, rather that when people who go on shooting rampages have large capacity clips at their disposal they injure and kill more people in less time.</p>
<p>And don’t have to reload, so no one has a chance to stop them.</p>