Goodbye to some of you
 

More than half firearm deaths are suicides

ATLANTA, Georgia, (AP) -- 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.


The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves.

1 of 2 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.............

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/30/guns.suicides.ap/index.html

So you're asking us for a gun?

From the article:
Guns are good at one thing, that's for sure.

Guns are a complex issue, many pros and cons.

All it took was one nut threatening me and my wife to push me into gun ownership.

31,000/1,000,000 x 100 = 3.1%

Day late, dollar short:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/417478-gun-owners-diy.html

What's that saying about "statistics"?

Gun owners are the happiest people in the US
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, April 21, 2008 2:40 PM |
The Wall Street Journal reports that gun-clingers are not, in fact, bitter.
According to the 2006 General Social Survey, which has tracked gun ownership since 1973, 34% of American homes have guns in them. This statistic is sure to surprise many people in cities like San Francisco – as it did me when I first encountered it. (Growing up in Seattle, I knew nobody who owned a gun.)
Who are all these gun owners? Are they the uneducated poor, left behind? It turns out they have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners. Americans with guns are neither a small nor downtrodden group.

Nor are they "bitter." In 2006, 36% of gun owners said they were "very happy," while 9% were "not too happy." Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.

In 1996, gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling "outraged at something somebody had done." It's easy enough in certain precincts to caricature armed Americans as an angry and miserable fringe group. But it just isn't true. The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don't have guns.

The gun-owning happiness gap exists on both sides of the political aisle. Gun-owning Republicans are more likely than nonowning Republicans to be very happy (46% to 37%). Democrats with guns are slightly likelier than Democrats without guns to be very happy as well (32% to 29%). Similarly, holding income constant, one still finds that gun owners are happiest.

How interesting it is that Liberals want to save everybody in the world from themselves. That is at the heart of this thread. Very simply you cannot save everyone from themselves. There are roughly 5% to 7% of ANY population that are bent on self destruction whether it be alcohol, drugs or other forms of bad behavior. Ben Franklin over 200 years ago said that 90% of all men kill themselves in one way or another.

If people would follow the simple instructions that come with any gun (that I have bought) this problem could be avoided.

Such as:

1. Put a lock on your gun, my new shotgun came with a factory trigger lock.

2. Store guns and ammo in separate locations.

Those are just two of the many regulations you will be taught at any gun safety class or read in most gun owners manuals.

Give him one, I'm tired of these guys trying to tell me how to live my life & restrict my rights!!!

Who cares.

Oregon is the only state I'm aware of with anything even remotely resembling a common sense approach to this issue. If a person decides it's their time, I don't know why they shouldn't have quick, easy, painless methods available to them.

I'd eat a bullet any day versus the alternative of having to linger on indefinitely as a helpless, feeble, sick, incontinent individual that is a drain on my surviving relatives/friends. If it ever got to that point, I'd look for an exit too.

It's the same issue as abortion - if humane, safe, compassionate alternatives are not available, people will go to the violent, bloody, messy, complicated ones. People committing suicide by eating bullets/shotgun shells is directly analogous to "back alley" abortions. Making something illegal (especially for some silly pseudo-moralistic reason) does not mean people stop doing it. It means they simply look for alternatives to accomplish the same objective - which are often far more gruesome and distasteful than the thing the pseudo-moralists were trying to eliminate in the first place. . .

Since people know cigarette smoking causes cancer, and yet they still smoke, I will argue that cigarette smokers are all committing suicide. How do the number of cigarette related suicides compare to the number of gun related suicides?

Cigarette smoking causes health problems in 100% of habitual smokers.
What percentage of firearms owners have never been shot?




"Between 40 and 50% of all statistics are made-up."
- American Journal of Statistics

There's a lot of love in this thread, i can feel it through my keyboard.

I'm not telling you how to do anything. I offered no opinion, just gave you something to read. You have every right to off yourself whenever you choose as far as I'm concerned.

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I was offering you one, if I was going to off myself, it will be with old age & heavy drinking;)

And we have a request from a friend in Bellwood, PA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMPl_B7cWQU

Enjoy!

Go after me all you want. I heard this on CNN this morning and found it interesting. Maybe the CDC is distorting facts. I don't know. Just found it interesting.

What kind of loser can't spell "loser"? :confused: :D

Not to make light of suicide - but if people are going to do it - they are going to do it. Sweden, Japan and many other places with no guns have high suicide rates. Drunks in cars with a deathwish are our biggest suicide problem - as they are more likely to hurt others..

Simple logic!

1. Lefties are far too smart & sophisticated to own a handgun
2. Brain trust leftie, DaveE has data that gun ownership causes death
3. Guns will cause the death of conservatives at a much higher rate than lefties
4. Lefties never lie
5. Lefties are concerned about me

I feel so much better now!SmileWavy

I'll bet this woman wished she had a gun in the moments before she was killed (on the front steps of the police station):

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbday0701sbjul01,0,2276821.story

Guns are the gateway tools to suicide.

:D

You may start of simply maiming yourself with a .22, but before you know it you'll be constructing a 10mT warhead in your basement just to off yourself.

But I don't blame guns. I blame Emo kids.

WTF???? Do people not read the forums anymore before making moronic posts?

I mean one post on this was bad enough, and totally bizarre, but two?

And that's just the beginning of it. First they'll kill themselves and the next thing you know, they'll just keep on killing more and more innocent people...this madness MUST stop!!!

Thank you!

I read the article. To me, it seems like the problem is people wanting to kill themselves. Apparently, many folks choose a gun as the tool.

It's truly sad that someone would choose to end their life, but the gun is not the problem, IMHO.

2¢

or...Maybe CNN is putting out it's usual biased left-slanted selective reportage... "in late breaking news, another bomb went off in Baghdad today killing......":rolleyes:

I've had guns in my home since 1975. My children STILL don't know how to get into the gun safe OR where I keep the ready access piece. Though it must be said they are grown and gone to their own homes now, all through their lives they were safe from the guns in their (my) house.

Well, a business associate/friend hung himself back in Jan, a friends son-n-law ODed on his meds in Feb (he suffered from depression & her health issues, mid 40s) and another in April, terminal cancer, blew his head off with a shot gun. So, if I seem a bit testy on this subject and others (CDC) trying to tie it to guns, well, how many people hang them selves each year, how many OD on prescription meds?? Hope you understand.

I grew up with guns, currently have, well a few, and never considered using one on my self, I might drink until I pass out, but never go near weapons when drinking.

ROFL! :D
Post of the month right there.

I lost a classmate a few years back, he ran the car in the garage until dead. I blame Exxon. Point being, if someone wants out there are alot of ways. I for one am tired of the stats about guns that are only posted in a negative way. I have enough guns to arm my entire little town, doubt I will be shooting myself anytime soon though. ( I know some of ya'll are wishing otherwise but too bad.)

Well there ya go.
We need to outlaw rope, medicine, cancer and guns. Then we'd all be safe. ;)

You are all SO missing the boat here.

The obvious answer is to simply ban suicide.

What? You mean that wouldn't work?

I believe in ancient Rome the crime of attempted suicide was punishable by death.
Jim

Dave E,
If you do not want to own a gun, then don't. If you want to control me, then I am glad You are not in control...yet, not yet, NO not yet. !! Take your Pablum fed brain and BARF some where else where they do not mind cleaning up snivelly worthless feel good words that never EVER address the facts!!!!
Thoughts that are supposed to move my emotions to save some one else from their own genetic flaws .Their own demise
When you want to paint the world with Bull **** and say it smells like the South Sea Islands .You can never win this as there is nothing to Win. Just your wind out of your lungs onto the keyboard tyring to convince me..... and you have- that there is not a logical brain or back bone in your body .
You Buckle so EZ !!
You are corn bread fed and do not , have not ever compiled a original thought ALL by your self......It would be too DAM scary for you..If there was not a exam or dead line to meet, if there was no other goal to get to from here you could not postulate a complete thought.
From the cradle to the grave let me be you knave , your slave , OHH please, please save me from thy self as with out you and Ralph Nader what will I do ? What is there else ?
Piss up a rope
When the **** hits the fan throw a fan at someone.
idiot
You can not even read your basic rights and you want to in force you lack of comprehension, reading skills , bad breeding of reading on me ?
You deserve to be with out a gun , and as things turn out you will probably get your wish looking at the trajectory of govt thoughts and the rhetoric.....from the likes of you