Why Australia's famed gun control laws probably wouldn't reduce shooting deaths in America

[hminsky]

LA Times has a moment of clarity. They seem to have stumbled on some actual real statistics which contradict the usual hysteria over extremely rare mass shootings.

Why Australia's famed gun control laws probably wouldn't reduce shooting deaths in America - Los Angeles Times

Australia has not seen a shooting like the Port Arthur massacre since, and the National Firearms Agreement is widely credited for this success. Gun control advocates in the United States — including former President Obama — have spoken admiringly of the law and suggest it should be a model for reducing gun deaths here.


That wouldn’t do any good, according to the authors of a new study.

Mass shootings get the most attention, but they account for a tiny fraction of total gun deaths in the U.S., data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionshow. Among the nation’s 36,252 firearms-related fatalities in 2015, 61% were suicides and most of the rest were ordinary homicides.

Neither of those kinds of deaths actually fell in Australia as a result of the National Firearms Agreement, researchers reported Tuesday in the American Journal of Public Health.​

 

[Whutmeworry]

I’m sure the author of this article has already been fired or at the very least, #MeToo’d.

 

[Whutmeworry]

Ok I take back my earlier comments after reading through the whole article. #1 the author is female so the #metoo thing is irrelevant. #2 she ends the article basically saying the US needs “broader” gun control measures.

 

[StevieP]

What can or should lawful gun owners do to help with the suicides by gun?

We all know two thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The left conveniently lumps them in with "gun violence" statistics and use the raw numbers to push for gun control.

Gun owners deflect, using Japan and other cultures to say these people would just kill themselves using Gravity, ropes, prescription drugs, carbon monoxide, or other means. In the meantime, they ARE using guns, and "giving us all a bad name."

Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

 

[StevieP]

Found this from 1999

NRA-ILA | Suicide And Firearms

 

[mibro]

What can or should lawful gun owners do to help with the suicides by gun?
.....
Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

Nope.

 

[Choctaw]

Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

Do you mean like a Kevorkian style gun buy back? Sorry, dark humor today.

Other than someone who has a terminal illness and doesn't want to be a medical or financial burden, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would go to that extreme. But, I would think a complete and abrupt environment change would be in order. Whisk them away, give them some basic survival gear and drop them in the middle of nowhere. Maybe even in a group. Guns are too quick an option. Struggle to find food, shelter, and water and they might just decide "hey, I want to live!"

 

[drgrant]

What can or should lawful gun owners do to help with the suicides by gun?

We all know two thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The left conveniently lumps them in with "gun violence" statistics and use the raw numbers to push for gun control.

Gun owners deflect, using Japan and other cultures to say these people would just kill themselves using Gravity, ropes, prescription drugs, carbon monoxide, or other means. In the meantime, they ARE using guns, and "giving us all a bad name."

Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

Lol, not sure if serious, part of the problem with that tack , and those groups being associated with it is now we'd be drawn into, inadvertently, promoting the narrative that the antis want, which is somehow that "guns are part of the problem", that's ceding ground/giving them traction that they do not deserve.

The only reason "gun suicides" give anyone a "bad name" is because of people misusing the statistics for their own ends. Car owners don't get a bad name from drunk drivers, it shouldn't be any different, frankly.

Also antis, in reality, give zero f***s about suicides or crime prevention. What happened in Vermont recently is a perfect example of this. VT has an exceptionally low firearm death rate in every category, and yet, somehow, a bunch of shitty laws got passed.... their agenda is not based on actually trying to solve some kind of a problem, their agenda is based on banning guns.

-Mike

 

[StevieP]

Nope.

Why not? Even if the general availability of guns doesn't CAUSE suicide (i.e. they're not part of the problem), why wouldn't we as responsible gun owners want to be part of the solution, whatever that may be? Our suicide rate is low compared to some other countries, but in instances where people do attempt it, they're generally more successful when using a gun, than other means (or so I've heard).

Edit to say if we as gun owners went on the OFFENSIVE in this regard, we could help define the discussion. Prove that more gun laws aren't always going to be the right answer for every situation. Find a way to reduce "gun suicides" by some other means than more government interference.

 

[Hetzer]

There were 9,616 firearms homicides in 2015, not the 14,138 they're stating (39% of 36,252).

Expanded Homicide Data Table 8

 

[hminsky]

What can or should lawful gun owners do to help with the suicides by gun?

We all know two thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The left conveniently lumps them in with "gun violence" statistics and use the raw numbers to push for gun control.

Gun owners deflect, using Japan and other cultures to say these people would just kill themselves using Gravity, ropes, prescription drugs, carbon monoxide, or other means. In the meantime, they ARE using guns, and "giving us all a bad name."

Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

Would be nice if it could help. But as drgrant said, it might be used as another weapon, so to speak, to be turned against gun owners.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

Should the NRA, NSSF, and other orgs do more to help with suicide prevention?

The NRA should have a campaign "If you've had enough of life, don't let you last act be a gift to the gun ban crowd - please use something other than a gun"

 

[mibro]

The NRA should have a campaign "If you've had enough of life, don't let you last act be a gift to the gun ban crowd - please use something other than a gun"

The problem with the other methods is they aren't as foolproof. Do you want somebody pulling you out of your helium bag while you're still alive but severely brain damaged?

A better approach would be to support the idea that choosing when you die is a fundamental human right and suicides should not be in the firearm statistics at all.

 

[Path-Finder]

Lol, not sure if serious, part of the problem with that tack , and those groups being associated with it is now we'd be drawn into, inadvertently, promoting the narrative that the antis want, which is somehow that "guns are part of the problem", that's ceding ground/giving them traction that they do not deserve.

The only reason "gun suicides" give anyone a "bad name" is because of people misusing the statistics for their own ends. Car owners don't get a bad name from drunk drivers, it shouldn't be any different, frankly.

Also antis, in reality, give zero f***s about suicides or crime prevention. What happened in Vermont recently is a perfect example of this. VT has an exceptionally low firearm death rate in every category, and yet, somehow, a bunch of shitty laws got passed.... their agenda is not based on actually trying to solve some kind of a problem, their agenda is based on banning guns.

-Mike

That was bound to happen in Vermont eventually. Have you ever spent any time up there? Bunch of goddamn hippies...Stowe is nice though.