Suicides in United States
While the subject matter is grave, and not to be spoken of lightly, this particular article strikes me as more propaganda than legitimate news. I would note that on average, according to http://www.suicidology.org, there are roughly 101-105 suicides daily in the United States. The sensational nature of this headline would indicate alarm if not for the fact that taken literally, it would mean over 700 suicides this week weren't gun related.. or 99.8%. (Indicating guns are not a major cause..) This however, is not true either, as suicidology.org also notes in their statistics that roughly 50%+ of all suicides in the last two years counted (2009[1] - 2010[2]) were gun related.
Now that being said, the statistic itself somewhat misleading. It is sort of like saying musical instruments were used in over 50% of the songs written last year in the U.S.. or over 50% of all nails pounded in the U.S. were pounded in with hammers. The gun is probably the primary choice of tool when it comes to killing one's self because it is, by its very definition, a tool used by some people to kill things. Attempting to kill one's self with a carp would merely prove one to be suicidal and stupid.
"Iran's PressTV published an opinion piece claiming that for every gun owner who uses their weapon in their home for self-defense, there are eleven suicide attempts involving a weapon." - Am I to assume that Iran's PressTV is somehow an expert reference on American violence statistics? ..or are we quoting conditions in Iran? I know if I lived in Iran and owned a gun, I'd probably be 11x more likely to commit suicide too.
[1] http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=248&name=DLFE-540.pdf
[2] http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=262&name=DLFE-636.pdf
The recent suicide by a US maine in Medina, OH shouldn't be a suprise. The DoD has admitted a problem with suicides over the years that continues to escalate. More troops killed themselves last year than died in combat. The military also has an epic problem with rape and sexual asault and is doing nothing about it. They believe the suicide rate is also connected to that.
We need to focus less on how people themselves and more on why. If you want to kill yourself and don't have a gun you are going to find a way to do it. A gun tends to be the quickest and least painful way. Guns aren't the problem people ignoring people with issues are the problem.
There is a great site about the US marines and how they even teach them to use suicide to get out of sexual assaults. It shows how a guy from the same area as the guy who killed himself in OH claimed to be suicidal, raped a woman and stole. The marines completely ignored everything all the way to the Pentagon. And look at what the marine claimed was his political view on his facebook page!
http://www.theusmarinesrape.com/MarshmallowHead.html http://theusmarinesrape.com/FaceBook.html
- Firstly, these commenters are much more polite than I'd care to be....I was going to say some very ugly things about this article, but I think I'll down-shift just a bit as I think I have a pretty good name here, and I'd like to keep it that way. Although I own 1 small-caliber rifle, I AM NOT A BIG PRO-GUN PERSON....I want to make that clear. I am a social worker, and I think that the loosey-goosey access to guns we have in America needs to be looked at VERY CAREFULLY.
To re-focus on the article, this is a clear representation of the mindset that says, "Volume of words adds value to the article." This is actually NOT A NEWSWORTHY ARTICLE. It's a bunch of factual statements glued together to create a high volume of print on the screen. Gobs of people kill themselves each week in the US; the fact that 14 in ONE SPECIFIC WEEK were gun-related means very little. I'd bet 37 people this week suffered a scraped knee due to cracks in the sidewalk, or maybe 26 people suffered a strained shoulder due to extra-tight lug nuts while changing a flat. This article's focus on "14" provides no other data to help triangulate meaning/value within the topic (a sure sign that a non social-sciences person wrote this article). This is yellow journalism at its finest and is an embarrassment to this project.