Firearms contribute to high suicide rates. Fire arms are different than other suicide methods in one key aspect: attempts are much more likely to be fatal. Other means of attempting suicide are take time, less reliable, and more likely to survive and get counseling. Harvard Injury Control Research Center find that the fatality rate of suicide attempts with a firearm exceed 90%, compared with a fatality rate of less than 5% for other common suicide methods (117). The suicide with gun is biggest concern in teenagers and young adulthood. When many people experiencing, pronounced emotional and social difficulties without having the life experience or maturity to put them into
Many teenagers and even adults feel worthless and depressed and give up on life. Instead of taking action and getting help to solve their life problems, these people choose to commit suicide. There are about 30,000 suicide deaths per year. This number is outrageously high. One out of every 45 attempts of suicide actually succeeds. Whether suicide attempters succeed or fail, all depends on how easy it is for them to get the resources they want to use for this task, especially firearms. Deborah Azrael, a research associate at Harvard’s Research Center, found that when guns were predominant in a state, suicide rates were higher. The inverse of this statement was also correct, in states where guns were not prevalent, suicide rates were lower. Many lives would be saved, many suicides would be prevented, and many families would be able to avoid heartbreak and despair, if firearms were not accessible in the United
Among ages 15-19 years, firearm-related suicides accounted for 62% of the suicide rate over the last few decades.
In the short article "Guns in America" by Esmé E Depres, she shows that firearms are involved in the deaths of more than 30,000 people in the U.S. annually, about two-thirds of which are suicides.
Gun control saves lives and reduces suicide rates. Studies have revealed that suicide is something that individuals do in the spur of the moment. It is not a rational decision since people can contemplate suicide because of the current situation. In such moments, lack of a firearm could act as the difference between existence and death. A report in the Boston Globe indicated that states whose population has access to guns record higher suicide rates. The report continued to indicate that people who commit suicide are 17 times more likely to own guns. Those opposed to this claim argue that there are very many methods of committing suicide; hence, gun control cannot prevent a willing soul. Someone who wants to commit suicide may be overcome by the will that they can use anything
Every day in the U.S. 58 people kill themselves with a gun. These statistics are more than just numbers to me. Both my uncle, Lynn, and his own son, Aaron, committed suicide with hunting rifles kept within the family’s home. Studies have proven that roughly
According to the quote above from the Centers for Disease Control, “there were 21,175 suicides in 2013 using a firearm and roughly 42,773 suicide deaths happen every year… Firearms account for almost 50% of all suicides” claims the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) "Suicide Statistics - AFSP." AFSP. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. This is why firearm owners need frequent background checks to prevent citizens with disorders to own firearms! Because guns fall into the hands of unstable people all the time, and by emplacing gun control laws into motion we can stop giving people guns and putting those around them at risk for injury or worse:
More gun control would lead to fewer successful suicide attempts. Suicide attempts by other means have a higher rate of survival because guns are instant and give the person no time to think about what they are doing, while around 86% of attempted suicides by firearm are fatal. Suicide by gun is most popular (21,386 out of 42,826 suicides using a gun as of March 17, 2017). A study found suicide rates in rural parts of Maryland were 35% higher than urban parts of Maryland, which was mainly due to the number of guns available in those areas. In addition, 2 in 3 deaths by firearm are suicides. Researchers found that suicide rates in rural areas of the country were 35% higher than suicide rates in urban areas, and the researchers said one of the reasons why this occurs is because of how many more guns there are in those rural areas. Based on these facts, it can be concluded that more gun control laws would lead to fewer successful suicide attempts because if the suicidal person had to take a few days to think and devise a plan to commit suicide
Gun law advocates argue that gun control laws diminish the amount of weaponry in the streets, and, by extension, in the hands of criminals. Likewise, gun control will diminish suicide. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 270,237 suicides (58.2% of total deaths); 174,773 homicides (37.7%); and 9,983 unintentional deaths (2.2%) (CDC, 2014). If perhaps, one of these families had a surviving brother or sister, mother or father, due to the current policies, it is worth enacting change. It is inhuman to allow people to die by firearms when they could simply be banned. In light of the recent mass shootings, families are left with the lingering wonder as to whether these national tragedies could be prevented. Criminals can easily
In the United States handguns are the most common means of suicide. The World Health Organization identifies suicide as a serious public health concern. People experiencing social difficulties may result in ending their lives using a firearm at their disposition. People experiencing psychological disorders due to illness or alcohol and drug abuse are also highly likely to commit suicide using a handgun. A study in northeastern Unites State established that 91% of suicide attempts by firearms resulted in death. Males are more likely to commit suicide using firearms. It is not uncommon to hear of cases where an entire family is eliminated by the gun. A husband or wife shooting their partner and children and then commits suicide. Guns can be fatally dangerous in the wrong
In the United States National Vital Statistics report written by AM Minino in 2002, it was indicated that annually there are about 30, 000 people who die because of firearm injuries. And within the United States 28, 663 deaths have been caused by gunshots and these are mostly suicidal acts. Some of the facts in the report say that next to suicides are homicides with the use of guns and the third highest numbers of deaths due to gun violence are unintentional shootings, since this is America; most of these people have been living in the metropolis (Minino, 2002).
Furthermore, this research will hypothesize that states with stricter gun control laws will have lower rates of youth gun suicide than states with more lenient or no gun control laws proposed specifically to limit youths, because those laws will restrict youths from accessing a firearm. The assumed findings will demonstrate that as the severity of sanctions of gun control laws increased, youth gun suicide rate will decreased. Meanwhile, there are other factors that will affect youth gun violence rate, such as psychological illnesses, past suicidal ideation/attempts, low parental monitoring, and as well as past risk behaviors committed by the youth. However, these factors can be discussed in researches analyzing the social aspects of youth gun
Another consideration is whether firearm violence is more a matter of harm to self or others. Suicides account for 61 % of all firearm fatalities in the United States in 2010 as recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (qtd. In Bowen, Injury 2015). In spite of such evidence, Gallup polling data from 2013 showed that 48 % of adult Americans blame the mental health system a great deal for mass shootings in the United States, whereas fewer 40 % blame easy access to guns; an inadequate mental health system is perceived as the top cause of mass shootings (qtd. In Bowen, Saad 2013).
I believe to reduce gun violence, we need to go right to the majority of what it is. In this case it would be suicide. One article Suicide and Self- inflicted Harm published by the center for control and disease states there the “deaths per 100,000 people in the US is 6.7.” this is only one statistic for death by gun. Overall suicide is much higher than that. It is not the most sought after death, but it is the most efficient. I have known many people over my short 16 years of life. I have known scores of people who have killed themselves. I’ve been in the position to end my life many times. I’ve had best friends die, watched them die. It is a horrible tragedy. Suicide is a sorrowful disaster.
Suicide was by far the greatest number of deaths from firearms. According to the CDC of the total 33,594 deaths from firearms in 2014 over 64% of the deaths from firearms were a result of suicide (Kochanek, Murphy, Xu, Tejada-Vera 2014). While it is tragic to know that means the other 36% were killed by having a firearm turned on them it still shows that the dangers of firearms lies mainly in the hands of someone who has a mental illness. Even if we assume all other deaths were from people who had no form of mental illness that is over 20,000 people who if mental illness did not exist or even just better treated, would still be alive today. In order to treat mental illness however, we must be able to distinguish what is and is not a mental illness. For the purpose of this article a mental illness is; any disease or disorder that is clinically recognized and causes some sort of distress. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year (Martinelli., Binney, & Kaye 2014). Considering that most gun deaths are caused by suicide, it is understandable to assume that these people were
Majority of gun deaths in America are gun suicide and spouse killing. The scene is common in rural states where the tradition demands them to own guns. The effect of owning the gun is that in case of any misunderstanding or life challenging situation they believe that gun suicide is the best solution (Hong-yan & Ji-hong, 2011, p. 59). The gun owners should, therefore, be advised to lead the way in preventing gun suicide by adopting new and healthy ways to solve conflict apart from death. They should also learn that in case of a hard situation in life, death is not the best solution; people must struggle to make their lives better than before.