Can you wrap your head around these figures? 60% of gun deaths are suicides. More than half of all suicides in the U.S. are from guns.
What logical solution jumps out at you? If you said keep guns and ammunition locked up, you are correct. Are you a gun owner who cares about saving lives? If so, you already lock up your firearms securely, away from anyone who may be at risk, especially children and family members who might struggle with suicidal ideation.
This one simple step could prevent many, many suicides. Ask your legislators to pass a bill that mandates all firearms be secured with a trigger or cable lock in a secured locker.
To learn more, please read on.
While mass shootings capture the country's attention, suicide shootings are much more common. America has a gun violence problem. What do we do about it? Gun data shows mass shootings are an anomaly compared with suicides. See relevant excerpts from the article below:
"What you don't hear about and what people don't assess is for every story of a mass shooting, there are, on average, 300 [other] stories, most of them suicide, that are never told," Kris Brown, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Brady: United Against Gun Violence said.
Suicide: The biggest driver of gun deaths. Researchers and advocates say not enough attention is paid to gun suicides, which account for over 60% of all gun deaths annually -- 117,000 Americans between 2015 and 2019, according to the CDC.
The data shows that half of all suicide deaths in the U.S. are from guns. And while only 10% of attempted suicides involve guns, the high percentage of fatalities from gun suicides reflects the fact that roughly 87% of all gun suicide attempts are successful, according to a Brady: United Against Gun Violence analysis of CDC data from those years.
A study by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control and gun safety, found the rate of firearm suicides was five times higher in rural communities than urban communities.
The lack of media coverage on gun suicides has resulted in a lack of understanding of who is most affected by gun deaths.
"We talk about gun violence, but you have to think of guns as an epidemic of injury by firearms. That's the more practical way to think about this," Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, said.
"Too many people think gun violence is an urban problem among Black communities. They don't realize that it's happening more and more in smaller communities in their neighbor's homes," Benjamin said.
Experts who have been studying gun violence say people are more likely to find common ground when the focus is taken off mass shootings, and it is instead approached as a multi-faceted problem.
There is one simple step that could prevent many suicides. Ask your legislators to pass a bill that mandates all firearms be secured with a trigger or cable lock in a secured locker.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A
Culture of Caring: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Schools (K-12) was
created as a resource for educators who want to know how to get started and
what steps to take to create a suicide prevention plan that will work for their
schools and districts. It is written from my perspective as a school principal
and survivor of suicide loss, not an expert in psychology or counseling. I hope
that any teacher, school counselor, psychologist, principal, or district
administrator can pick up this book, flip to a chapter, and easily find helpful
answers to the questions they are likely to have about what schools can do to
prevent suicide.
