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Comment by ransom1538 | Hacker News Reader

There is a decent documentary that watches a few teams respond to "Gun Violence" (1). It was basically a tour of people shooting themselves or their family. A bizarre left turn into mental health questions and responsibilities. It is clear that, of ~33k gun deaths (2) - most are suicides. Meanwhile, homicide is almost non-exisitant (3) - but it is all i see on the news :(

1) http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/requiem-for-the-dead-americ...

2) "11,208 homicides (3.5 per 100,000); 21,175 suicides; 505 deaths due to accidental/negligent discharge of a firearm; and 2818 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta...

3) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-16/fbi-us-homicide-rat...

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11K deaths from homicide isn't "almost non existent". Now it is true the burden is concentrated in young males, especially black males. This is not to say a death from homicide is intrinsically more important than from suicide, that firearms aren't linked to higher suicide rates, or that gun suicide isn't worth preventing - clearly it is.

As for why the news focuses on homicide, especially spectacular mass murders, "if it bleeds it leads".

I don't know about other countries, but in New Zealand, the media specifically doesn't report on suicides (or omits the cause of death, if it's a high profile death by suicide). This is because of the fear of copy-cat suicides.

I didn't realise it's actually illegal for media to report suicides in NZ.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/80143183/New-Zealand-suicide...

One reason for the lack of coverage is the propensity for media coverage of suicide to lead to copycats. There's an interesting question here about how to have a rational discussion about gun suicide without provoking more suicides.

http://jechbeta.bmj.com/content/57/4/238.short

The possibility of a copycat effect does not seem to deter the media from frenzied, hyperbolic reporting on mass shootings or terrorism.

> Meanwhile, homicide is almost non-exisitant (3)

Homicide accounting for a third of gun-related deaths in the US, and a homicide rate four times higher than other western democracies... is "almost non-existent"!?

It is true that most Americans are very unlikely to be murdered. This homicide rate varies widely over age, sex and race, and (as per CDC) homicide is not a leading cause of death for most demographics. Young black males are, unfortunately, the exception.

> homicide is not a leading cause of death for most demographics.

That's a downplaying, dismissive phrase. Most western democracies have a homicide rate of 0.5-1.5/100k population/year. The US is an outlier amongst this group at ~4.8/100k/y. But even in Honduras, with the runaway worst homicide rate in the world at around 85/100k/year, an eye-gogglingly high rate, homicide is not a 'leading cause of death for most demographics'.

It is not dismissive to put death rates into perspective. It is noteworthy that homicide is the number one cause of death for US Black males, 15-34 years old, as per 2013 CDC data. The death rate from homicide for age 20-24 is about 86.6 per 100,000 per year, worse than the Honduras average. This is true for no other demographic group surveyed in the United States.

See page 35 of http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_02.pdf

For White males, 15-24 years, homicide is the #3 cause of death while suicide is #2.

Almost certainly, homicide would also be the leading cause of death for young Honduras males, though I don't have that data.

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