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The issue with this is that suicides by firearms are a majority of those 30,000 Deaths. Over 50% - How will a Background Check, Ammunition Background check, and

The issue with this is that suicides by firearms are a majority of those 30,000 Deaths. Over 50% - How will a Background Check, Ammunition Background check, and identification requirement stop 15,000 people a year from committing suicide by firearm? Furthermore - Those who wish to utilize this method for self-death when they don't have a firearm they simply go rent one and take their life at a shooting range.

duncan_bayne 11y ago
That's sort of my point. The author of the article lumps suicide into the same moral bucket as homicide and defensive gun use.
kls 11y ago
The lack of a firearm is not going to deter the intent it will just change the execution of the intent (not that I am insinuating that you are arguing for it). What you see reduced in firearm related suicides will most assuredly be followed by in increase in other means of self termination. Specifically drug overdose would certainly see an uptick. Firearms are preferred because they are efficient at producing the end goal and leave little margin of error. About the only fear a person in that situation has is a botch attempt that leaves them more of a burden on those around them. In saying that we really have no accurate way of tabulating what the true toll of drug related suicides amounts to given that many of them get ruled as accidental overdose. I have a friend who committed suicide by ingesting Oxycodone and Klonopin in a massive dose the doctor ruled it an accidental overdose, most likely to spare the family grief, but he had voiced idealization many times before that and had confided that it would be drugs should he choose to. A haunting conversation that I recall was his reasoning for the preference for drugs over firearms and it boiled down to him basically stating that while he would prefer a firearm for the certainty of it, he was a gun enthusiast and would not want his death to count as a win for anti-firearm talking points. Personally I don't see suicide as a valid argument for the abolition or regulation of guns, and in my view may create a worse situation, as I personally see a vegetative state as worse than death for the victim and certainly worse than death for the family members. Further I don't think it will decrease suicide as the gun is not the end goal nor a limiting factor of suicide, rather it is the vehicle, take it away and they will just find another vehicle. I am not advocating leaving guns in the care of people who are suicidal, but rather, offering my viewpoint that I don't think suicide, or it's rate can be affected by the removal of firearms. I believe they are just a tool to achieve a goal and are easily replaced in their absence.

duncan_bayne 11y ago

That's sort of my point. The author of the article lumps suicide into the same moral bucket as homicide and defensive gun use.

kls 11y ago

The lack of a firearm is not going to deter the intent it will just change the execution of the intent (not that I am insinuating that you are arguing for it). What you see reduced in firearm related suicides will most assuredly be followed by in increase in other means of self termination. Specifically drug overdose would certainly see an uptick. Firearms are preferred because they are efficient at producing the end goal and leave little margin of error. About the only fear a person in that situation has is a botch attempt that leaves them more of a burden on those around them. In saying that we really have no accurate way of tabulating what the true toll of drug related suicides amounts to given that many of them get ruled as accidental overdose. I have a friend who committed suicide by ingesting Oxycodone and Klonopin in a massive dose the doctor ruled it an accidental overdose, most likely to spare the family grief, but he had voiced idealization many times before that and had confided that it would be drugs should he choose to. A haunting conversation that I recall was his reasoning for the preference for drugs over firearms and it boiled down to him basically stating that while he would prefer a firearm for the certainty of it, he was a gun enthusiast and would not want his death to count as a win for anti-firearm talking points. Personally I don't see suicide as a valid argument for the abolition or regulation of guns, and in my view may create a worse situation, as I personally see a vegetative state as worse than death for the victim and certainly worse than death for the family members. Further I don't think it will decrease suicide as the gun is not the end goal nor a limiting factor of suicide, rather it is the vehicle, take it away and they will just find another vehicle. I am not advocating leaving guns in the care of people who are suicidal, but rather, offering my viewpoint that I don't think suicide, or it's rate can be affected by the removal of firearms. I believe they are just a tool to achieve a goal and are easily replaced in their absence.