Posted by bleauberry on January 28, 2010, at 17:14:39
In reply to Re: DON'T BUY A GUN!!!, posted by floatingbridge on January 17, 2010, at 5:00:52
I don't have them at hand, but it was a magazine and two newspaper articles that did editorials on how neighborhoods with the highest gun ownership had dramatically lower crime levels. I guess the reasoning was that criminals were not the only ones that had guns, and thus they were neutralized from attempting crime in those neighborhoods. The gunless neighborhoods were the ones hit hard by crime. It was a sidenote, but suicide rates were also lower in the gun ownership neighborhoods.
We've all heard this saying before, but it deserves repeating once in a while...
People kill people (or self), guns don't kill people. The gun does absolutely nothing without the purposeful direction of a human being. It wasn't the gun's fault that the trigger got pulled.
Granted, for a very depressed person, a nearby gun makes it quick and easy.
My father used to work as a trauma surgeon and told stories of many people who shot themselves in the head, only to survive the rest of their lives blinded, paralyzed, or mentally retarded. So even with a gun, it isn't guaranteed.
No matter. If someone is that depressed and intervention does not occur, they will die at their own hand one way or another. Whether they have access to a gun or not will not significantly change the outcome.
I've never seen any studies or statistics on people who were attempting suicide, but didn't have a gun, and so aborted the suicide attempts. That would be interesting. My guess is those numbers would be very low. If they're gonna do it, they're gonna do it.
poster:bleauberry
thread:933660
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100122/msgs/935248.html