Then I don’t really get your point. If suicides are most gun deaths, then shouldn’t these statistics apply to gun deaths too? I don’t just want a solution for mass shootings. We should want one for other gun problems too.
That is a question. That’s why I pointed out that states with assault weapon bans appear to highly correlate to lower gun deaths and yet I don’t think many suicides (which comprise most gun deaths) are committed with assault weapons. So…maybe something else is going on with these numbers.
I’m with you here. First off, take state-by-state numbers with a huge grain of salt in general. Open borders mean local gun laws have less relevance. I know Alaska and Wyoming have ridiculous suicide rates and lax gun laws. Loosely related maybe, but there’s a whole lot else that feeds into suicide rates. If you just look at Alaska’s native population, for example, the suicide rate gets much worse. Lack of jobs, education, prospects for the future, plus a nighttime that lasts 30 days.
And I question whether many people who commit suicide by firearm will choose to live if they don’t have a gun to kill themselves with. That sounds very doubtful to me.
You’d be surprised how well those seemingly dumb suicide barriers on bridges work. They don’t help everyone, certainly, or even most people. But making suicide just a little bit harder is sometimes just enough to get people to look around at their other options. And not just their other options for means of suicide.