Suicide Risks

Suicide is and has always been a major problem in every society.  In the United States there were more than 1 million suicide attempts last year. The American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide says that one American commits suicide every 13 minutes, 90% of which had some diagnosed psychological problem before taking his or her life. But what magnifies suicide in this country is the presence of so many guns in households, the vast majority there for the reason the gun holder perceives as "protection". It's odd, given that this country has low homicide rates and the idea that the vast majority of people here are not safe without a gun has never been proved to be true.

I do not like guns, never had one and never will. No one in my family has ever owned a gun. We recognized the non necessity of having one, the chance that a gun could be stolen and used by a criminal, the idea that a gun might be accidentally discharged and injure or kill someone, and that most suicides here are committed by the use of a hand gun one kept at home. Statistics show that more than half of all suicides occur with handguns as the weapon of death. So why don't those who want to ban handguns ever mention this? Last year more than 40,000 Americans committed suicide, the 10th leading cause of death in this country.

Ok, enough of the statistics and back to my question as to why more public figures like politicians do not point to the fact that if a person owns a handgun he or she is more than 10 times likely to take his or her own life than non gun owners. All scientific studies suggest that the health risk of a gun in the home is greater than the benefit. There are no credible studies that indicate otherwise. If an individual has a gun, everybody in the home is more likely than  non-gun-owning neighbors and their families to die in a gun related accident, suicide or homicide. It's clear and simple.

Yet the constitutional right to firearms in the United States, and the pandering by government officials to gun rights special interest rights block common sense and reason from the debate. And self slaughter continues. What a waste.