Whereas the NRA would have us believe that the solution to our alarming homicide rate is more good-guy guns and greater accessibility, that argument has been refuted beyond dispute when it comes to suicide. A recent landmark review by the Harvard School of Public Health begins with, "Every study that has examined the issue to date has found that within the U.S., access to firearms is associated with increased suicide risk." Based on hard scientific data, the unanimous verdict is in. Period.
From a multitude of statistics, I will cite a few that seem especially revealing:
- In rural America, where guns are a far more accessible part of the culture, people ages 10-24 are twice as likely as their urban counterparts to commit suicide, overwhelmingly by gunfire.
- 1.1 million people attempted suicide in the U.S. in 2012. A suicide attempt by gunfire is nearly always fatal. Only one in sixty suicide attempts by all other means combined is fatal.
- A 2012 study found that suicide has surpassed auto accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. Gunfire is the fastest growing method.
- A 2007 study compared 39 million people from the 15 states with the highest gun ownership versus 40 million people from the 6 states with the lowest gun owner prevalence. There were 9,749 firearm suicides from the high-prevalence states versus 2,606 from the low-prevalence states. Both groups had approximately 5,000 or so non-firearm suicides.
- The oft-quoted study of sweeping gun control regulation in Australia, following the 1996 mass murder of 35 people by a lone gunman, resulted in a 65 percent annual drop in suicides by gunfire with no increase in suicide by other methods. A successful gun buy-back program reduced the rate still further by as much as 74 percent. These results only slightly exceed the drop in homicides by gunfire (59 percent), again with no increase in homicide by other methods.
