this is surprising how?
Surprising fact: Half of gun deaths are suicides
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer (ATLANTA)
First time I got involved in gun politics, 1960s,
the gun suicide to murder to accidental death
ratio was 10 : 6 : 2.
This fact is surprising for what reason?
A journalist bothered to check the facts?
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.
. . . . . .
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of
Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1 million
incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an actual or
threatened criminal attack.
Public-health experts have said the telephone survey methodology Kleck
used likely resulted in an overestimate.
So the balancing act is supposed to be number of suicides versus self-defense
lives saved by guns in homes? I think one would actually have to show an impact
of gun laws on reducing more suicides versus lives that would be saved by
self defense. And not just reducing suicide by gun. People intent on killing
themselves chose the deadliest means available, people intent on sending a
plea for help more than actually killing themselves choose less lethal means.
That would skew the statistics showing more successful shooting suicides and
fewer successful ODs.
If the potential gun suicides carry out their intent by other means, assuming
the gun laws were effective, then there is a net loss if the suicides occur by
other means and the gun laws thwart self-defense.
And the article does not mention that in reviews of studies on gun
control and crime, CDC 2003 and NAS 2004 showed no measurable benefit
from any of the gun control policies.
ASIDE:
Well, gee, the NSPOF survey designed by Kleck and conducted by Chiltons
in 1994 gave 23 million defensive gun uses, 27% by shooting, or 6.2 million
shooting DGUs in the write-up by Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig NIJ Research 1997.
And Kleck himself says the methodology may tend to exaggerate the more
dramatic DGUs. Kleck believes that 2.4 million DGU overall and 80,000 to
160,000 shooting DGUs (which give 3 to 7% shooting) are more reasonable
estimates. OK, 23 million (NSPOF 1994 survey) and 2.4 million (NSDS 1993 survey)
are "more than 1 million" so why quibble over exact numbers??