There probably isn’t an agenda in this story. ABC cites research that says, surprise, guns are effective at killing at a close range, especially when the target is holding the gun and wants to die. Weird:
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.
There was nothing unique about that year — gun-related suicides have outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25 years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths. Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that involve undetermined intent.
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.
The anti-gun vitriol is just dripping off of those paragraphs. It is really sickening to see this passed off as “news.” They are trying to connect the presence of a gun with the desire to kill yourself. Read that last paragraph again and tell me they aren’t. The presence of a gun does not equal suicide.
Look at the facts. According to this article, “Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation’s nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005…” That’s 17,050 people who took their life with a gun.
Wow. That is a big number. Now, how many guns are there in America? According to the National Rifle Association, there are 250,000,000. Hmmm. Well, how many gun owners? 70,000,000 to 80,000,000. There are more than 70,000,000 gun owners in America, and because 17,050 people decided to use a gun to end their life, we should be against guns.
I know I’m not the only one seeing the absurdity of this article.
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.
The high court’s majority opinion made no mention of suicide. But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer used the word 14 times in voicing concern about the impact of striking down the handgun ban.
“If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,” Breyer wrote.
So what? Really, what does that have to do with anything? You can take the term gun out, replace it with anything, and it is true. Look, it works:
- “If a resident has a butcher knife in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a butcher knife in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,”
- “If a resident has a screech owl in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a screech owl in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,”
- “If a resident has a cherry cheesecake in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a cherry cheesecake in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,”
- “If a resident has a complete set of the X-Files DVDs in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a complete set of the X-Files DVDs in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,”
- “If a resident has a Hillary Clinton photo in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a Hillary Clinton photo in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,”
Who cares? If a person wants to kill himself, the lack of a gun isn’t going to stop him. Perhaps we need to ask WHY 17,050 people killed themselves, rather than HOW they killed themselves. But, the anti-gun folks have become very desperate and are using their deaths to try to advance their agenda. Pitiful.
