Gun control advocates are going to be studying the effects of the Heller decision on suicide rates in the District of Columbia. Fortunately, I think most people are capable of coming to the quite rational conclusion that guns do not cause people to decide to commit suicide.
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.
Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other risk factors.
But apparently journalists are not capable of this level of deductive reasoning. But here’s how they conclude it’s the guns:
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.
“Other methods are not as lethal,” said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
My theory on this has long been, people who actually want to kill themselves choose effective tools. People who are crying out for help and attention choose less effective tools. There’s no fundamental reason jumping from a high place only has a 34% success rate. A plunge off the Golden Gate or a tall building or structure, is pretty much guaranteed to be 100% successful if you’re choosing your location based on actually wanting to die. In Japan, where guns are illegal, and which has a suicide rate much higher than the United States, throwing yourself in front of a high speed train is becoming quite the rage, and I would imagine has an effectiveness rate close to 100%.