The Coloradoan
More people used a gun to take their own lives last year in Colorado than died in motor vehicle accidents, marking the first time that suicide by gun outpaced traffic deaths in the state.
Gun deaths have been more numerous than automotive fatalities in Colorado since 2009, but 532 gun-involved suicides outnumbered the 457 deaths in car crashes last year, state health data shows. Gun-involved suicides in the state jumped nearly 20 percent between 2011 and 2012, the largest such leap in more than a decade.
Experts say many of these deaths are preventable, but prevention requires framing suicide as a public health issue, not an insular problem.
