http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/american-gun-deaths...
As others have mentioned, a hefty percentage of those deaths are suicides. Would those suicides have happened if the option of a firearm wasn't available? Perhaps.
As others have mentioned, a hefty percentage of those deaths are suicides. Would those suicides have happened if the option of a firearm wasn't available? Perhaps.
We have to be better than harm reduction surely?
Thing is, often people who are depressed do get better. And I think a lot of people who end up killing themselves would have gotten better if only they hadn't. I think this is all the more the case for teenagers.
That's why I think it's worthwhile to take away opportunities to kill yourself. That means making gun possession illegal, installing safety nets, etcetera. (Within reason, of course.)
How does your (oddly specific) statistic address this question?
We're both "high trust" societies. Compare to the Chinese stereotype/archetype of not trusting someone outside the family to run part of the business, which helped to kill Wang in the US and abroad outside of the PRC tends to limit firms to simple types like trading companies.
I agree, we are in many ways very different, many of them fundamental, but many fundamental are similar enough.
Sure, but I explicitly excluded non-modern countries. (I have lived in China.)
> I agree, we are in many ways very different, many of them fundamental, but many fundamental are similar enough.
Okay, but you're not controlling for any variables. Like you say, there are many differences even if there are similarities too.
Having a highly-effective killing device in the home turns attempts into suicides - and a gun is an order of magnitude more effective than other common methods.
http://archive.sph.harvard.edu/press-releases/2007-releases/...
Americans would go bonkers if someone started selling a do-it-yourself euthanasia machine. But we're ok with lots of handgun sales, despite that being one of their most common uses - more common than self-defense.
People in their first week of gun ownership kill themselves 57 times more frequently than the general public. That suggests to me that people who are determined to die are buying guns for the express purpose of suicide, and would probably select some other method if it was too difficult to obtain a gun.