Gun Done!
In a recent, well-publicized news story, some were happy, others sad, to learn that the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller in June 2008, not only struck down a ban on handgun ownership in Washington, D.C., but also ruled that the District’s law requiring all firearms in the home to be locked away violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. Personally, my household, like that of the more than one-third of the others in the U.S., contains a handgun, and I have weighed the pros and cons of firearm possession. Have you? Firearm-related, suicide statistics are, indeed, sobering, and one certainly cannot blame the anti-gun lobby for its “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” proselytizing. In 2005, for example, with suicide in the U.S. reaching the unenviable milestone of second-leading cause of death among Americans 40 years of age or younger, more than half of all suicides were gun suicides, 46 Americans per day committed suicide, and gun suicide outstripped gun homicide by 40%.
Not only is suicide, in and of itself, an impulsive act, usually taking anywhere from 5 minutes to less than 1 hour between the decision to kill oneself and the actual attempt itself, but it is also self-limiting, meaning that once the acute phase of the urge or crisis passes, so, too, does the urge to attempt suicide. One begins to realize here that firearm availability in the household might, indeed, be conducive to a precipitous downward spiral and catastrophic conclusion of events.
If that were not enough, case-control studies have shown that in homes with firearms, the higher risk of suicide also applies to the gun owner’s spouse and children, the risk of suicide increases no matter how the handgun is stored, and adolescent suicide is four times more likely when the firearm is loaded and unlocked. The relationship between household gun ownership rates and suicide has been studied in all 50 states of the U.S. between 2000 and 2002, and it hasn’t taken a descendant of Einstein to determine that those states with higher handgun ownership rates also have higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide.
So, we know the problem. What is the solution? While many physicians and public health practitioners continue to adhere to the mistaken belief that someone who is serious enough to attempt suicide can find equally effective means when a gun is not available, there is something that can be done and two roads to follow. The number of suicide attempts can be reduced by recognition and intensified treatment of mental illness, and restricted access to handguns can be and has been proven effective as a suicide deterrent.
The gun can be undone!
Not only is suicide, in and of itself, an impulsive act, usually taking anywhere from 5 minutes to less than 1 hour between the decision to kill oneself and the actual attempt itself, but it is also self-limiting, meaning that once the acute phase of the urge or crisis passes, so, too, does the urge to attempt suicide. One begins to realize here that firearm availability in the household might, indeed, be conducive to a precipitous downward spiral and catastrophic conclusion of events.
If that were not enough, case-control studies have shown that in homes with firearms, the higher risk of suicide also applies to the gun owner’s spouse and children, the risk of suicide increases no matter how the handgun is stored, and adolescent suicide is four times more likely when the firearm is loaded and unlocked. The relationship between household gun ownership rates and suicide has been studied in all 50 states of the U.S. between 2000 and 2002, and it hasn’t taken a descendant of Einstein to determine that those states with higher handgun ownership rates also have higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide.
So, we know the problem. What is the solution? While many physicians and public health practitioners continue to adhere to the mistaken belief that someone who is serious enough to attempt suicide can find equally effective means when a gun is not available, there is something that can be done and two roads to follow. The number of suicide attempts can be reduced by recognition and intensified treatment of mental illness, and restricted access to handguns can be and has been proven effective as a suicide deterrent.
The gun can be undone!
© 2008, Albert M. Balesh, M.D. All rights reserved
posted by Dr. Al at
9/27/2008 06:25:00 PM
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