Opposition to gun control in this country has become so toxic that it’s impossible to have a clean discussion about it. This most recent response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 vote on gun ownership shows why. As public health experts know (it’s no surprise, despite what the headline says), guns play a significant role in suicides.
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
Mon Jun 30, 9:18 PM ET
ATLANTA – The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens’ ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.
Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation’s nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
And, no, it’s not true that people who would commit suicide would simply find some other way to do it if no gun is available.
… More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said, citing studies.
“Other methods are not as lethal,” said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
Gun control opponents argue that other countries have higher suicide rates with less availability of guns. True. But we’re not talking about other countries. The data does not back up the contention that U.S. gun suicides would always find some way to kill themselves. That’s conjecture.
The right to bear arms isn’t the only policy issue here. The right to health and safety is even more important. Suicide, homicide and gun violence are serious health and safety issues. But look what’s happened to thwart honest policy analysis. The gun lobby in Congress (and in the hallways of Congress) has blocked data collection about gun violence. Same story:
…Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in public-health research into gun violence.
The CDC traditionally was a primary funder of research on guns and gun-related
injuries, allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such projects in the mid-1990s.
But the agency cut back research on the subject after Congress in 1996 ordered that none of the CDC’s appropriations be used to promote gun control…
The anger-filled aggressiveness by the gun lobby and gun enthusiasts has succeeded in stopping reasoned discussion — and even scientific data collection! The result is that we can’t even have a rational discussion on guns and health in this country.
