HamburgerBoy
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They're Bohemia. Prostitution, porn stars, booze, and drugs all over the place, altogether with lax gun laws. Still no violence. They give no fucks.
The Great American Gun Fetish
- Thread starter UltimateApathy
- Start date
They're Bohemia. Prostitution, porn stars, booze, and drugs all over the place, altogether with lax gun laws. Still no violence. They give no fucks.
A Harvard study about guns and suicide risk:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-ownership-and-use/
Suicide
1-2. Gun availability is a risk factor for suicide (literature reviews)
We performed reviews of the academic literature on the effects of gun availability on suicide rates. The preponderance of current evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for youth suicide in the United States. The evidence that gun availability increases the suicide rates of adults is credible, but is currently less compelling. Most of the disaggregate findings of particular studies (e.g. handguns are more of a risk factor than long guns, guns stored unlocked pose a greater risk than guns stored locked) are suggestive but not yet well established.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. The relationship between firearms and suicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 1999; 4:59-75.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. Gun prevalence and the risk of suicide: A review. Harvard Health Policy Review. 2001; 2:29-37.
3.Across states, more guns = more suicide(cross sectional analyses)
Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership rates, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and suicide across 50 states over a ten-year period (1988-1997). After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, across the United States, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of suicide, particularly firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and suicide across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. Epidemiology. 2002; 13:517-524.
4.Across states, more guns = more suicide (2)(cross sectional analyses)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and suicide across states, 1999-2001. States with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups. It remained true after accounting for poverty, urbanization and unemployment. There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Lippmann, Steven; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership and rates of suicide across U.S. states. Journal of Trauma. 2007; 62:1029-35.
5. Across states, more guns = more suicides(time series analysis)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and suicide over time, 1981-2001. Changes in the levels of household firearm gun ownership was significantly associated with changes in both firearm suicide and overall suicide, for men, women and children, even after controlling for region, unemployment, alcohol consumption and poverty. There was no relationship between changes in gun ownership and changes in non-firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David; Lippman, Steven. “The association between changes in household firearm ownership and rates of suicide in the United States, 1981-2002.” Injury Prevention. 2006; 12:178-82.
6. Across states, more guns = more suicide (Northeast)
We analyzed data on suicide and suicide attempts for states in the Northeast. Even after controlling for rates of attempted suicide, states with more guns had higher rates of suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah. Firearms and suicide in the Northeast. Journal of Trauma. 2004; 57:626-632.
7. Across U.S. regions, more guns = more suicide(cross sectional analysis)
We analyzed the relationship of gun availability and suicide among differing age groups across the 9 US regions. After controlling for divorce, education, unemployment, poverty and urbanization, the statistically significant relationship holds for 15 to 24 year-olds and 45 to 84 year-olds, but not for 25 to 44 year-olds.
Birckmayer, Johanna; Hemenway, David. Suicide and gun prevalence: Are youth disproportionately affected? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2001; 31:303-310.
8. Differences in mental health cannot explain the regional more guns = more suicide connection
We analyzed the relationship of gun availability and suicide among differing age groups across the 9 US regions. Levels of gun ownership are highly correlated with suicide rates across all age groups, even after controlling for lifetime major depression and serious suicidal thoughts.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. The association of rates of household handgun ownership, lifetime major depression and serious suicidal thoughts with rates of suicide across US census regions. Injury Prevention. 2002; 8:313-16.
9. Gun owners do not have more mental health problems than non-owners
We added questions to, and analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Study.
Gun owning households do not have more mental health problems than non-gun owning households; differences in mental health do not explain why gun owners and their families are at higher risk for completed suicide than non-gun owning families.
Miller, Matthew; Molnar, Beth; Barber, Catherine; Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah. Recent psychopathology, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in households with vs. without firearms: findings from the National Comorbidity Study Replication. Injury Prevention. 2009; 15:183-87.
10.Gun owners are not more suicidal than non-owners
We analyzed data from the Second Injury Control and Risk Survey, a 2001-2003 representative telephone survey of U.S. households. Of over 9,000 respondents, 7% reported past-year suicidal thoughts, and 21% of these had a plan. Respondents with firearms in the home were no more likely to report suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts, but if they had a suicidal plan, it was much more likely to involve firearms. The higher rates of suicide among gun owners and their families cannot be explained by higher rates of suicidal behavior, but can be explained by easy access to a gun.
Betz, Marian E; Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. Suicidal behavior and firearm access: results from the second injury control and risk survey (ICARIS-2). Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviors. 2011; 41:384-91.
11. Adolescents who commit suicide with a gun use the family gun
The vast majority of adolescent suicide guns come from parents or other family members.
Johnson, Rene M; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah; Clark, David E; Hemenway, David. Who are the owners of firearms used in adolescent suicides? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2010; 40:609-611.
12. The case-fatality rate for suicide attempts with guns is higher than other methods
Across the Northeast, case fatality rates ranged from over 90% for firearms to under 5% for drug overdoses, cutting and piercing (the most common methods of attempted suicide). Hospital workers rarely see the type of suicide (firearm suicide) that is most likely to end in death.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. The epidemiology of case fatality rates for suicide in the Northeast. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2004; 723-30.
13. The public does not understand the importance of method availability
Over 2,700 respondents to a national random-digit-dial telephone survey were asked to estimate how many of the more than 1,000 people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge would have gone on to commit suicide some other way if an effective suicide barrier had been installed. Over 1/3 of respondents estimated that none of the suicides could have been prevented. Respondents most likely to believe that no one could have been saved were cigarette smokers and gun owners.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Belief in the inevitability of suicide: Results from a national survey. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2006; 36:1-11.
14. Physicians need to do more to help reduce access to lethal means
This commentary presents the overwhelming evidence that the availability of lethal means increases the suicide rate and argues that physicians need to take an active role in reducing access for potentially suicidal individuals.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. Guns and suicide in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2008; 359:989-991.
15. Emergency department physicians and nurses rarely counsel about lethal means restriction
In one Boston emergency department (ED), ED physicians and nurses believe they should counsel suicidal patients on lethal means restriction, but they often don’t. Psychiatrists working at the ED were much more likely to ask about firearms.
Betz, Marian E; Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. Lethal means restriction as suicide prevention: Variation in belief and practices among providers in an urban ED. Injury Prevention. 2010; 16:278-81.
16. Emergency department physicians and nurses do not believe lethal means restriction can prevent suicide
Physicians and nurses at 8 emergency departments (n = 631) were surveyed about their practices and beliefs concerning means restriction and whether they asked their patients about guns. The proportion of providers who reported that they “almost always” ask suicidal patients about firearm access varied across five patient scenarios: 64% would ask a suicidal patient whose suicide plan involved firearms and 21% would ask a suicidal patient who did not have a specific plan. Less than half believed that most suicides are preventable; two-thirds of nurses thought that most or all firearm suicide decedents would have died by another method if the firearm had not been available.
Many ED nurses and physicians do not understand the importance of the availability of lethal means in determining whether or not a suicide attempt ends in death. The Means Matter Campaign needs to continue educating these professionals.
Betz, Marian E; Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine et al. Lethal means restriction for suicide prevention: Beliefs and behaviors of emergency department providers. Depression and Anxiety. 2013; 10:2013-20.
17. Mental health providers can be trained to reduce the risk of gun suicide
The Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) workshops were effective in improving mental health care providers’ attitudes, beliefs and skills regarding lethal means counseling.
Johnson, Rene M; Frank, Elaine; Ciocca, Mark; Barber, Catherine. Training mental health providers to reduce at-risk patients’ access to lethal means of suicide: Evaluation of the CALM project. Archives of Suicide Research. 2011 15(3): 259-264.
18. Suicide training in means reduction can be accomplished via the Internet
This article describes Harvard Injury Control Research Center’s (HICRC) National Center for Suicide Prevention Training, which uses the public health approach and includes training on means restriction.
Stone, Deborah; Barber, Catherine, Posner, Marc. Improving public health practice in suicide prevention through online training: A case example. In: Sher, Leo & Vilens, Alexander, eds. Internet and Suicide. New York: Nova Science, 2009.
19. Lethal means reduction strategies can successfully reduce suicide
This article summarizes recent additions to the scientific literature about means restriction policies and suicide.
Johnson, Rene M; Coyne-Beasley, Tamera. Lethal means reduction: What have we learned? Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2009; 21: 635–640.
20. Veterans have high rates of firearm suicide
There are no differences in suicide risk among middle-aged and older male veterans and non-veterans. Suicide by firearm is higher, suicide by non-firearm is lower. It is probable that lower baseline risk of active duty soldiers (healthy worker effect) tends to be counterbalanced by the accessibility of firearms to these veterans.
Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah, Calle, Eugenia E; Lawler, Elizabeth; Mukamal, Kenneth J. Suicide among US veterans: A prospective study of 500,000 middle-aged and elderly men. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009; 170:494-500.
21. There are effective ways to reduce suicide without affecting mental health
This introduction to suicide as an international public health problem examines the role of promoting mental health, changing cultural norms, and reducing the availability of lethal means in preventing suicide.
Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. A public health approach to preventing suicide. In: Finkel, Madelon L. Perspectives in Public Health: Challenges for the Future. Santa Barbara CA: Praeger Publishers, 2010.
22. Differences in suicide rates across the U.S. are best explained by gun prevalence
This summary of the scientific literature on suicide in the United States emphasizes the importance of levels of household firearm ownership in explaining different rates of suicide over time and across states, households and genders.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deboarh; Barber, Catherine. Suicide mortality in the United States: The importance of attending to method in understanding population-level disparities in the burden of suicide. Annual Review of Public Health. 2012; 33:393-408.
23. Reducing access to lethal means can begin to reduce suicide rates today
This editorial in an issue of the flagship public health journal devoted entirely to veteran suicide emphasizes the importance of the availability of firearms in determining whether suicide attempts prove fatal.
Miller, Matthew. Preventing suicide by preventing lethal injury: The need to act on what we already know. American Journal of Public Health. 2012; 102(S1):e1-3.
24. The main factor explaining differences in suicide rates across states is gun ownership, notrates of suicide attempts
Using data from recently available state-level suicide attempt data, this study examines whether the association between state-level firearm ownership and completed suicide remains after accounting for suicide attempt rates. Results show that firearm ownership rates – independent of underlying rates of suicidal behavior – largely explain the variation in suicide mortality across the 50 states.
Our results support the hypothesis that firearms in the home impose a suicide risk above and beyond baseline risk, and help explain why, year after year, several thousand more Americans die by suicide in states with higher than average household firearm ownership, compared with states with lower than average firearm ownership. This study answers critics of the empirical literature who claim that the association between firearm ownership and suicide mortality reflects unmeasured suicidal proclivities associated with firearm ownership.
Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah; White R. Firearms and suicide in the United States: Is risk independent of underlying suicidal behavior? American Journal of Epidemiology. 2013; 178: 946-55.
25. U.S. cities with more guns have higher rates of suicide because of higher rates of gun suicide
Across metropolitan statistical areas that are comprised of large U.S. cities, higher rates of firearm ownership are strongly associated with higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide, but not with non-firearm suicide. This study provides evidence consistent with previous case-control work and ecological studies across states and regions that firearms in the home increase the suicide risk.
We had previously shown that levels of household gun ownership largely explain the differences in suicide rates across regions and states. This article shows that gun ownership levels also explain much of the differences in suicide rates across cities. It is not altitude or remoteness from medical care facilities that can explain this gun-suicide connection.
Miller M, Warren M, Azrael D, Hemenway D. Firearms and suicide in US cities. Injury and Prevention. 2015: 21:e116-e119.
26. Firearms dealers can help prevent suicide
This article describes the New Hampshire gun shop project. After a spate of firearm suicides, a committee of firearm dealers, firearm rights advocates, and suicide prevention professionals including HICRC worked on ways to help gun shops help prevent suicide. Within a couple of years, half of New Hampshire gun shops were using suicide prevention materials developed by the committee.
The gun shop project has become a model of cooperation between public health professionals and gun advocates, a model that is being rolled out throughout the nation. This is the first academic article describing the cooperation and documenting its success. HICRC personnel took the lead on the campaign’s written materials and the pre- and post-campaign interviews with gun shop owners.
Vriniotis M, Barber C, Frank E, Demicco R, and the NH Firearm Safety Coalition. A suicide prevention campaign for firearm dealers in New Hampshire. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. 2015; 45(2): 157-163.
27. This article prioritizes the research needed to make a means restriction approach successful
This paper describes (a) the evidence about guns and suicide; (b) the types of voluntary programs (not command-and-control legislation) that will reduce firearm suicides, and (c) the research needed that can help create effective programs.
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) asked HICRC to write priorities for firearm research. This article describes a research agenda that will provide the knowledge to make a means restriction approach successful.
Barber C & Miller M. Reducing a suicidal person’s access to lethal means of suicide: A research agenda. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2014; 47(3):S264-72.
28. Guns, not antidepressant medication, explain the variants in suicide across the U.S.
This cross-sectional analysis of U.S. counties and states shows that differences in rates of suicide are not explained by differences in antidepressant medication, but are explained by levels of household firearm ownership.
Some mental health professionals have been claiming that antidepressant medication deserves the credit for the fall in suicide in the 1990s, and is the major reason some states have low suicide rates. This article shows that it’s the guns.
Opoliner A, Azrael D, Barber C,Fitzmaurice G,Miller M. Explaining geographic patterns of suicide in the U.S.: The role of firearms and antidepressants. Injury Epidemiology. 2014; March 20, 1:6.
29. A summary for psychiatrists of the evidence on guns and suicide
This essay summarizes the evidence concerning guns and suicide for a leading psychiatry textbook on violence and mental illness. It is part of our ongoing work to educate medical professionals to become knowledgeable about and advocates for the Means Matter approach to suicide prevention.
Miller M, Barber C, Azrael D. Firearms and suicide in the U.S. In: Gold LH, Simon RI eds. Gun Violence and Mental Illness. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. 2015.
30. A summary for sociologists of the evidence on guns and suicide
This essay, in the leading suicide textbook in the field, should help medical professionals to begin to use the Means Matter approach at the individual patient level and to promote it at the societal level.
Azrael D, Miller M. Reducing access to lethal means: A review of the evidence base. In:The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide, 2nded. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. 2015. In press.
31. Guns alone explain the gun-suicide connection
This article demonstrates that it is virtually impossible for unmeasured confounding to explain the association between firearms and suicide. The association is a real one.
Historically, the tobacco lobby claimed that the association between cigarettes and cancer could possibly be explained by some unknown risk factor for both. This assertion was finally refuted when scientists showed the absurd degree of association between both that such an unmeasured confounder would have to have. This article uses the same refutation for those who try to deny the causal association between guns and suicide.
Miller M, Swanson SA, Azrael D. Are we missing something pertinent? A bias analysis of unmeasured confounding in the firearm-suicide literature. Epidemiologic Reviews. 2016; 38(1):62-9.
32. Training increases whether providers ask about suicide
This study evaluated, via self-report, an intervention to change provider attitudes and practices related to suicide risk assessment at emergency departments (EDs). The intervention trained clinicians in conducting universal risk assessment, but did not provide training on lethal means counseling. There was a substantial increase in the percentage of providers reporting universal screening and secondary assessment of suicide risk. The proportion of nurses reporting often or almost always asking suicidal patients about firearm access increased (the proportion of doctors asking did not change). Still, for both, the numbers asking remained low relative to ideal practice.
A gun in the home is a substantial risk factor for suicide. Getting more providers to ask about firearms should help reduce completed suicides. The findings supported the feasibility of implementing universal screening for suicide in EDs and points to the need for specific training in lethal means counseling.
Betz ME, Arias AA,Miller M, Barber C,et al. Change in emergency department providers’ beliefs and practices after new protocols for suicidal patients. Psychiatric Services. 2015; 66:625-31.
33. Patients appreciate counseling about firearms
Sixteen psychiatric emergency clinicians were trained via an online course written by HICRC to provide lethal means counseling with parents of patients under 18 years receiving care for suicidality. Interviews with 114 families found that parents had favorable impressions of the counseling and good recall of the main messages. Everyone who reported there were guns in the home at the time of the visit reported at follow-up that all were currently locked, compared to 67% reporting this at the time of the visit.
The project demonstrates the feasibility of a Means Matter intervention for families with at-risk children.
Runyan C, Becker A, Brandspigel S,Barber C, Trudeau A, Novins D. Lethal means counseling for parents of youth seeking emergency care for suicidality. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2016; 17:8-14.
34. Many emergency department physicians fail to ask suicidal patients about firearms
In a study of eight emergency departments, half of patients treated for suicide ideation or attempts, who had firearms in the home, had not been assessed for access to lethal means.
This study demonstrates the importance of training in lethal means counseling since lethal means assessment in emergency departments is still not the norm.
Betz ME,Miller M, Barber C, Betty B, Miller I, Camargo CA, Bourdreaux ED. Lethal means access and assessment among suicidal emergency department patients. Depression and Anxiety. 2016; 33(6):502-11.
35. Ecological studies as well as case-control studies are important in understanding the connection of guns and violent death
The solicited commentary emphasizes the importance of the ecological studies of guns and suicide — that they overcame the “ecological fallacy”; the commentary also argues that ecological studies may be superior to case-control studies dealing with guns and homicide since men are usually shot outside the home with someone else’s gun. The commentary shows that there is strong ecological evidence of the gun-suicide connection in addition to the solid evidence from the case-control studies.
This commentary was solicited by the journal editors and makes the case that the case-control studies analyzed in a recent meta-analysis provide only one part of the evidence that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide. Adding ecological (and other) studies makes the case overwhelming.
Hemenway D. Guns, suicide, and homicide: Individual-level versus population-level studies (Commentary). Annals of Internal Medicine. 2014 Feb; 160:134-135.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-ownership-and-use/
Suicide
1-2. Gun availability is a risk factor for suicide (literature reviews)
We performed reviews of the academic literature on the effects of gun availability on suicide rates. The preponderance of current evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for youth suicide in the United States. The evidence that gun availability increases the suicide rates of adults is credible, but is currently less compelling. Most of the disaggregate findings of particular studies (e.g. handguns are more of a risk factor than long guns, guns stored unlocked pose a greater risk than guns stored locked) are suggestive but not yet well established.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. The relationship between firearms and suicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 1999; 4:59-75.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. Gun prevalence and the risk of suicide: A review. Harvard Health Policy Review. 2001; 2:29-37.
3.Across states, more guns = more suicide(cross sectional analyses)
Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership rates, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and suicide across 50 states over a ten-year period (1988-1997). After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, across the United States, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of suicide, particularly firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and suicide across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. Epidemiology. 2002; 13:517-524.
4.Across states, more guns = more suicide (2)(cross sectional analyses)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and suicide across states, 1999-2001. States with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups. It remained true after accounting for poverty, urbanization and unemployment. There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Lippmann, Steven; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership and rates of suicide across U.S. states. Journal of Trauma. 2007; 62:1029-35.
5. Across states, more guns = more suicides(time series analysis)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and suicide over time, 1981-2001. Changes in the levels of household firearm gun ownership was significantly associated with changes in both firearm suicide and overall suicide, for men, women and children, even after controlling for region, unemployment, alcohol consumption and poverty. There was no relationship between changes in gun ownership and changes in non-firearm suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David; Lippman, Steven. “The association between changes in household firearm ownership and rates of suicide in the United States, 1981-2002.” Injury Prevention. 2006; 12:178-82.
6. Across states, more guns = more suicide (Northeast)
We analyzed data on suicide and suicide attempts for states in the Northeast. Even after controlling for rates of attempted suicide, states with more guns had higher rates of suicide.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah. Firearms and suicide in the Northeast. Journal of Trauma. 2004; 57:626-632.
7. Across U.S. regions, more guns = more suicide(cross sectional analysis)
We analyzed the relationship of gun availability and suicide among differing age groups across the 9 US regions. After controlling for divorce, education, unemployment, poverty and urbanization, the statistically significant relationship holds for 15 to 24 year-olds and 45 to 84 year-olds, but not for 25 to 44 year-olds.
Birckmayer, Johanna; Hemenway, David. Suicide and gun prevalence: Are youth disproportionately affected? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2001; 31:303-310.
8. Differences in mental health cannot explain the regional more guns = more suicide connection
We analyzed the relationship of gun availability and suicide among differing age groups across the 9 US regions. Levels of gun ownership are highly correlated with suicide rates across all age groups, even after controlling for lifetime major depression and serious suicidal thoughts.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. The association of rates of household handgun ownership, lifetime major depression and serious suicidal thoughts with rates of suicide across US census regions. Injury Prevention. 2002; 8:313-16.
9. Gun owners do not have more mental health problems than non-owners
We added questions to, and analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Study.
Gun owning households do not have more mental health problems than non-gun owning households; differences in mental health do not explain why gun owners and their families are at higher risk for completed suicide than non-gun owning families.
Miller, Matthew; Molnar, Beth; Barber, Catherine; Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah. Recent psychopathology, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in households with vs. without firearms: findings from the National Comorbidity Study Replication. Injury Prevention. 2009; 15:183-87.
10.Gun owners are not more suicidal than non-owners
We analyzed data from the Second Injury Control and Risk Survey, a 2001-2003 representative telephone survey of U.S. households. Of over 9,000 respondents, 7% reported past-year suicidal thoughts, and 21% of these had a plan. Respondents with firearms in the home were no more likely to report suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts, but if they had a suicidal plan, it was much more likely to involve firearms. The higher rates of suicide among gun owners and their families cannot be explained by higher rates of suicidal behavior, but can be explained by easy access to a gun.
Betz, Marian E; Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. Suicidal behavior and firearm access: results from the second injury control and risk survey (ICARIS-2). Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviors. 2011; 41:384-91.
11. Adolescents who commit suicide with a gun use the family gun
The vast majority of adolescent suicide guns come from parents or other family members.
Johnson, Rene M; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah; Clark, David E; Hemenway, David. Who are the owners of firearms used in adolescent suicides? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2010; 40:609-611.
12. The case-fatality rate for suicide attempts with guns is higher than other methods
Across the Northeast, case fatality rates ranged from over 90% for firearms to under 5% for drug overdoses, cutting and piercing (the most common methods of attempted suicide). Hospital workers rarely see the type of suicide (firearm suicide) that is most likely to end in death.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. The epidemiology of case fatality rates for suicide in the Northeast. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2004; 723-30.
13. The public does not understand the importance of method availability
Over 2,700 respondents to a national random-digit-dial telephone survey were asked to estimate how many of the more than 1,000 people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge would have gone on to commit suicide some other way if an effective suicide barrier had been installed. Over 1/3 of respondents estimated that none of the suicides could have been prevented. Respondents most likely to believe that no one could have been saved were cigarette smokers and gun owners.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Belief in the inevitability of suicide: Results from a national survey. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2006; 36:1-11.
14. Physicians need to do more to help reduce access to lethal means
This commentary presents the overwhelming evidence that the availability of lethal means increases the suicide rate and argues that physicians need to take an active role in reducing access for potentially suicidal individuals.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. Guns and suicide in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2008; 359:989-991.
15. Emergency department physicians and nurses rarely counsel about lethal means restriction
In one Boston emergency department (ED), ED physicians and nurses believe they should counsel suicidal patients on lethal means restriction, but they often don’t. Psychiatrists working at the ED were much more likely to ask about firearms.
Betz, Marian E; Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. Lethal means restriction as suicide prevention: Variation in belief and practices among providers in an urban ED. Injury Prevention. 2010; 16:278-81.
16. Emergency department physicians and nurses do not believe lethal means restriction can prevent suicide
Physicians and nurses at 8 emergency departments (n = 631) were surveyed about their practices and beliefs concerning means restriction and whether they asked their patients about guns. The proportion of providers who reported that they “almost always” ask suicidal patients about firearm access varied across five patient scenarios: 64% would ask a suicidal patient whose suicide plan involved firearms and 21% would ask a suicidal patient who did not have a specific plan. Less than half believed that most suicides are preventable; two-thirds of nurses thought that most or all firearm suicide decedents would have died by another method if the firearm had not been available.
Many ED nurses and physicians do not understand the importance of the availability of lethal means in determining whether or not a suicide attempt ends in death. The Means Matter Campaign needs to continue educating these professionals.
Betz, Marian E; Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine et al. Lethal means restriction for suicide prevention: Beliefs and behaviors of emergency department providers. Depression and Anxiety. 2013; 10:2013-20.
17. Mental health providers can be trained to reduce the risk of gun suicide
The Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) workshops were effective in improving mental health care providers’ attitudes, beliefs and skills regarding lethal means counseling.
Johnson, Rene M; Frank, Elaine; Ciocca, Mark; Barber, Catherine. Training mental health providers to reduce at-risk patients’ access to lethal means of suicide: Evaluation of the CALM project. Archives of Suicide Research. 2011 15(3): 259-264.
18. Suicide training in means reduction can be accomplished via the Internet
This article describes Harvard Injury Control Research Center’s (HICRC) National Center for Suicide Prevention Training, which uses the public health approach and includes training on means restriction.
Stone, Deborah; Barber, Catherine, Posner, Marc. Improving public health practice in suicide prevention through online training: A case example. In: Sher, Leo & Vilens, Alexander, eds. Internet and Suicide. New York: Nova Science, 2009.
19. Lethal means reduction strategies can successfully reduce suicide
This article summarizes recent additions to the scientific literature about means restriction policies and suicide.
Johnson, Rene M; Coyne-Beasley, Tamera. Lethal means reduction: What have we learned? Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2009; 21: 635–640.
20. Veterans have high rates of firearm suicide
There are no differences in suicide risk among middle-aged and older male veterans and non-veterans. Suicide by firearm is higher, suicide by non-firearm is lower. It is probable that lower baseline risk of active duty soldiers (healthy worker effect) tends to be counterbalanced by the accessibility of firearms to these veterans.
Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah, Calle, Eugenia E; Lawler, Elizabeth; Mukamal, Kenneth J. Suicide among US veterans: A prospective study of 500,000 middle-aged and elderly men. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009; 170:494-500.
21. There are effective ways to reduce suicide without affecting mental health
This introduction to suicide as an international public health problem examines the role of promoting mental health, changing cultural norms, and reducing the availability of lethal means in preventing suicide.
Barber, Catherine; Miller, Matthew. A public health approach to preventing suicide. In: Finkel, Madelon L. Perspectives in Public Health: Challenges for the Future. Santa Barbara CA: Praeger Publishers, 2010.
22. Differences in suicide rates across the U.S. are best explained by gun prevalence
This summary of the scientific literature on suicide in the United States emphasizes the importance of levels of household firearm ownership in explaining different rates of suicide over time and across states, households and genders.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deboarh; Barber, Catherine. Suicide mortality in the United States: The importance of attending to method in understanding population-level disparities in the burden of suicide. Annual Review of Public Health. 2012; 33:393-408.
23. Reducing access to lethal means can begin to reduce suicide rates today
This editorial in an issue of the flagship public health journal devoted entirely to veteran suicide emphasizes the importance of the availability of firearms in determining whether suicide attempts prove fatal.
Miller, Matthew. Preventing suicide by preventing lethal injury: The need to act on what we already know. American Journal of Public Health. 2012; 102(S1):e1-3.
24. The main factor explaining differences in suicide rates across states is gun ownership, notrates of suicide attempts
Using data from recently available state-level suicide attempt data, this study examines whether the association between state-level firearm ownership and completed suicide remains after accounting for suicide attempt rates. Results show that firearm ownership rates – independent of underlying rates of suicidal behavior – largely explain the variation in suicide mortality across the 50 states.
Our results support the hypothesis that firearms in the home impose a suicide risk above and beyond baseline risk, and help explain why, year after year, several thousand more Americans die by suicide in states with higher than average household firearm ownership, compared with states with lower than average firearm ownership. This study answers critics of the empirical literature who claim that the association between firearm ownership and suicide mortality reflects unmeasured suicidal proclivities associated with firearm ownership.
Miller, Matthew; Barber, Catherine; Azrael, Deborah; White R. Firearms and suicide in the United States: Is risk independent of underlying suicidal behavior? American Journal of Epidemiology. 2013; 178: 946-55.
25. U.S. cities with more guns have higher rates of suicide because of higher rates of gun suicide
Across metropolitan statistical areas that are comprised of large U.S. cities, higher rates of firearm ownership are strongly associated with higher rates of firearm suicide and overall suicide, but not with non-firearm suicide. This study provides evidence consistent with previous case-control work and ecological studies across states and regions that firearms in the home increase the suicide risk.
We had previously shown that levels of household gun ownership largely explain the differences in suicide rates across regions and states. This article shows that gun ownership levels also explain much of the differences in suicide rates across cities. It is not altitude or remoteness from medical care facilities that can explain this gun-suicide connection.
Miller M, Warren M, Azrael D, Hemenway D. Firearms and suicide in US cities. Injury and Prevention. 2015: 21:e116-e119.
26. Firearms dealers can help prevent suicide
This article describes the New Hampshire gun shop project. After a spate of firearm suicides, a committee of firearm dealers, firearm rights advocates, and suicide prevention professionals including HICRC worked on ways to help gun shops help prevent suicide. Within a couple of years, half of New Hampshire gun shops were using suicide prevention materials developed by the committee.
The gun shop project has become a model of cooperation between public health professionals and gun advocates, a model that is being rolled out throughout the nation. This is the first academic article describing the cooperation and documenting its success. HICRC personnel took the lead on the campaign’s written materials and the pre- and post-campaign interviews with gun shop owners.
Vriniotis M, Barber C, Frank E, Demicco R, and the NH Firearm Safety Coalition. A suicide prevention campaign for firearm dealers in New Hampshire. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. 2015; 45(2): 157-163.
27. This article prioritizes the research needed to make a means restriction approach successful
This paper describes (a) the evidence about guns and suicide; (b) the types of voluntary programs (not command-and-control legislation) that will reduce firearm suicides, and (c) the research needed that can help create effective programs.
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) asked HICRC to write priorities for firearm research. This article describes a research agenda that will provide the knowledge to make a means restriction approach successful.
Barber C & Miller M. Reducing a suicidal person’s access to lethal means of suicide: A research agenda. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2014; 47(3):S264-72.
28. Guns, not antidepressant medication, explain the variants in suicide across the U.S.
This cross-sectional analysis of U.S. counties and states shows that differences in rates of suicide are not explained by differences in antidepressant medication, but are explained by levels of household firearm ownership.
Some mental health professionals have been claiming that antidepressant medication deserves the credit for the fall in suicide in the 1990s, and is the major reason some states have low suicide rates. This article shows that it’s the guns.
Opoliner A, Azrael D, Barber C,Fitzmaurice G,Miller M. Explaining geographic patterns of suicide in the U.S.: The role of firearms and antidepressants. Injury Epidemiology. 2014; March 20, 1:6.
29. A summary for psychiatrists of the evidence on guns and suicide
This essay summarizes the evidence concerning guns and suicide for a leading psychiatry textbook on violence and mental illness. It is part of our ongoing work to educate medical professionals to become knowledgeable about and advocates for the Means Matter approach to suicide prevention.
Miller M, Barber C, Azrael D. Firearms and suicide in the U.S. In: Gold LH, Simon RI eds. Gun Violence and Mental Illness. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. 2015.
30. A summary for sociologists of the evidence on guns and suicide
This essay, in the leading suicide textbook in the field, should help medical professionals to begin to use the Means Matter approach at the individual patient level and to promote it at the societal level.
Azrael D, Miller M. Reducing access to lethal means: A review of the evidence base. In:The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide, 2nded. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. 2015. In press.
31. Guns alone explain the gun-suicide connection
This article demonstrates that it is virtually impossible for unmeasured confounding to explain the association between firearms and suicide. The association is a real one.
Historically, the tobacco lobby claimed that the association between cigarettes and cancer could possibly be explained by some unknown risk factor for both. This assertion was finally refuted when scientists showed the absurd degree of association between both that such an unmeasured confounder would have to have. This article uses the same refutation for those who try to deny the causal association between guns and suicide.
Miller M, Swanson SA, Azrael D. Are we missing something pertinent? A bias analysis of unmeasured confounding in the firearm-suicide literature. Epidemiologic Reviews. 2016; 38(1):62-9.
32. Training increases whether providers ask about suicide
This study evaluated, via self-report, an intervention to change provider attitudes and practices related to suicide risk assessment at emergency departments (EDs). The intervention trained clinicians in conducting universal risk assessment, but did not provide training on lethal means counseling. There was a substantial increase in the percentage of providers reporting universal screening and secondary assessment of suicide risk. The proportion of nurses reporting often or almost always asking suicidal patients about firearm access increased (the proportion of doctors asking did not change). Still, for both, the numbers asking remained low relative to ideal practice.
A gun in the home is a substantial risk factor for suicide. Getting more providers to ask about firearms should help reduce completed suicides. The findings supported the feasibility of implementing universal screening for suicide in EDs and points to the need for specific training in lethal means counseling.
Betz ME, Arias AA,Miller M, Barber C,et al. Change in emergency department providers’ beliefs and practices after new protocols for suicidal patients. Psychiatric Services. 2015; 66:625-31.
33. Patients appreciate counseling about firearms
Sixteen psychiatric emergency clinicians were trained via an online course written by HICRC to provide lethal means counseling with parents of patients under 18 years receiving care for suicidality. Interviews with 114 families found that parents had favorable impressions of the counseling and good recall of the main messages. Everyone who reported there were guns in the home at the time of the visit reported at follow-up that all were currently locked, compared to 67% reporting this at the time of the visit.
The project demonstrates the feasibility of a Means Matter intervention for families with at-risk children.
Runyan C, Becker A, Brandspigel S,Barber C, Trudeau A, Novins D. Lethal means counseling for parents of youth seeking emergency care for suicidality. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2016; 17:8-14.
34. Many emergency department physicians fail to ask suicidal patients about firearms
In a study of eight emergency departments, half of patients treated for suicide ideation or attempts, who had firearms in the home, had not been assessed for access to lethal means.
This study demonstrates the importance of training in lethal means counseling since lethal means assessment in emergency departments is still not the norm.
Betz ME,Miller M, Barber C, Betty B, Miller I, Camargo CA, Bourdreaux ED. Lethal means access and assessment among suicidal emergency department patients. Depression and Anxiety. 2016; 33(6):502-11.
35. Ecological studies as well as case-control studies are important in understanding the connection of guns and violent death
The solicited commentary emphasizes the importance of the ecological studies of guns and suicide — that they overcame the “ecological fallacy”; the commentary also argues that ecological studies may be superior to case-control studies dealing with guns and homicide since men are usually shot outside the home with someone else’s gun. The commentary shows that there is strong ecological evidence of the gun-suicide connection in addition to the solid evidence from the case-control studies.
This commentary was solicited by the journal editors and makes the case that the case-control studies analyzed in a recent meta-analysis provide only one part of the evidence that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide. Adding ecological (and other) studies makes the case overwhelming.
Hemenway D. Guns, suicide, and homicide: Individual-level versus population-level studies (Commentary). Annals of Internal Medicine. 2014 Feb; 160:134-135.
HamburgerBoy
Active Member
- Sep 16, 2007
- 15,042
- 4,850
- 113
Suicidal people should kill themselves. They'd be less unhappy if they did.
Even a report by Fox News (!) about how guns increase suicide risk:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/...d-to-three-fold-increase-in-suicide-risk.html
People may have heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder if they own or have access to a gun, according to a new analysis of previous research.
Researchers found people who lived in homes with firearms were between two and three times more likely to die from either cause, compared to those who lived in homes without guns.
"There have been a lot of conflicting reports about having a firearm in the home," Andrew Anglemyer said. He is the study's lead author and an epidemiologist from the University of California, San Francisco.
Anglemyer and his coauthors write in theAnnals of Internal Medicineon Monday that the U.S. has the highest prevalence of gun ownership in the world, and the majority of suicides and murders are committed with firearms.
For the new review, the researchers analyzed 14 studies that looked at the risk of committing suicide among people who did and didn't have access to guns and five studies that looked at gun access and the risk of being murdered. Four of the studies examined both suicide and murder risk.
The studies were published between 1988 and 2005. All but one found people with access to firearms had heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder.
"Most analyses will find some conflicting studies," Anglemyer told Reuters Health. "That's not at all what we see here."
The researchers found having access to a gun was tied to a three-fold increase in the likelihood that people would kill themselves.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 12 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide each year.
Anglemyer's team also found about a two-fold increased risk of death from murder among people who had access to a gun, compared to those without access to firearms. For women, the increased risk of being killed was even higher.
The death rate due to murder in the U.S. is about five per 100,000 people each year, according to the CDC.
Anglemyer and his colleagues write that previous studies have suggested rates of suicide and murder may be higher in areas with a high prevalence of gun ownership because people who commit those acts on impulse have an easier time getting a gun there.
In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Brian Smith and Rose Cheney from the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia wrote that firearms are efficiently lethal - even during brief moments of anger, rage and depression.
"The lethality of the weapons drives the increased risk of suicide and homicide completion," they wrote. "Firearms have very high case fatality rates, particularly in the case of suicide. Guns leave very little room for reconsideration of the choice to end a life."
Smith is a fellow in the Division of Traumatology and Cheney is executive director of the Firearm and Injury Center at Penn.
In an accompanying editorial, David Hemenway writes that gun access may not have increased the likelihood of death from homicide as much as suicide because most people are not murdered with their own gun.
Hemenway is an expert on injury prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
He also told Reuters Health the new analysis may underestimate the relationship between gun access and deaths because it only included studies comparing individuals and not large populations. But he agreed with the main finding.
"I would argue that there's not nearly enough research in the firearm area," Hemenway said. "But if there is one thing we know, that's it."
The researchers point out the analysis is only as reliable as the studies themselves, and some could have been flawed in the way they collected information on deaths and gun ownership.
Anglemyer said the review is about understanding the risk of owning a gun - just like people should know the risks when buying alcohol or cigarettes.
"This is about understanding personal risk and considering those risks when an individual chooses to own a firearm," he said.
Smith and Cheney also said households should have comprehensive plans to address specific household risks related to impulsive use.
"Weapons that are stored unloaded and outside of the household seem to pose the lowest risk of suicide and homicide," they wrote. "As such avenues must be made available to promote this option, thereby focusing on the safety of the household and all members of the household."
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/...d-to-three-fold-increase-in-suicide-risk.html
People may have heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder if they own or have access to a gun, according to a new analysis of previous research.
Researchers found people who lived in homes with firearms were between two and three times more likely to die from either cause, compared to those who lived in homes without guns.
"There have been a lot of conflicting reports about having a firearm in the home," Andrew Anglemyer said. He is the study's lead author and an epidemiologist from the University of California, San Francisco.
Anglemyer and his coauthors write in theAnnals of Internal Medicineon Monday that the U.S. has the highest prevalence of gun ownership in the world, and the majority of suicides and murders are committed with firearms.
For the new review, the researchers analyzed 14 studies that looked at the risk of committing suicide among people who did and didn't have access to guns and five studies that looked at gun access and the risk of being murdered. Four of the studies examined both suicide and murder risk.
The studies were published between 1988 and 2005. All but one found people with access to firearms had heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder.
"Most analyses will find some conflicting studies," Anglemyer told Reuters Health. "That's not at all what we see here."
The researchers found having access to a gun was tied to a three-fold increase in the likelihood that people would kill themselves.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 12 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide each year.
Anglemyer's team also found about a two-fold increased risk of death from murder among people who had access to a gun, compared to those without access to firearms. For women, the increased risk of being killed was even higher.
The death rate due to murder in the U.S. is about five per 100,000 people each year, according to the CDC.
Anglemyer and his colleagues write that previous studies have suggested rates of suicide and murder may be higher in areas with a high prevalence of gun ownership because people who commit those acts on impulse have an easier time getting a gun there.
In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Brian Smith and Rose Cheney from the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia wrote that firearms are efficiently lethal - even during brief moments of anger, rage and depression.
"The lethality of the weapons drives the increased risk of suicide and homicide completion," they wrote. "Firearms have very high case fatality rates, particularly in the case of suicide. Guns leave very little room for reconsideration of the choice to end a life."
Smith is a fellow in the Division of Traumatology and Cheney is executive director of the Firearm and Injury Center at Penn.
In an accompanying editorial, David Hemenway writes that gun access may not have increased the likelihood of death from homicide as much as suicide because most people are not murdered with their own gun.
Hemenway is an expert on injury prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
He also told Reuters Health the new analysis may underestimate the relationship between gun access and deaths because it only included studies comparing individuals and not large populations. But he agreed with the main finding.
"I would argue that there's not nearly enough research in the firearm area," Hemenway said. "But if there is one thing we know, that's it."
The researchers point out the analysis is only as reliable as the studies themselves, and some could have been flawed in the way they collected information on deaths and gun ownership.
Anglemyer said the review is about understanding the risk of owning a gun - just like people should know the risks when buying alcohol or cigarettes.
"This is about understanding personal risk and considering those risks when an individual chooses to own a firearm," he said.
Smith and Cheney also said households should have comprehensive plans to address specific household risks related to impulsive use.
"Weapons that are stored unloaded and outside of the household seem to pose the lowest risk of suicide and homicide," they wrote. "As such avenues must be made available to promote this option, thereby focusing on the safety of the household and all members of the household."
CiG
Approximately Infinite Universe
Graphs showing how gun crime has decreased after Australia introduced much stricter gun control laws:
http://d3bo5ucoqkgs8h.cloudfront.net/3cKYf/2/
http://d3bo5ucoqkgs8h.cloudfront.net/yXObk/1/
http://d3bo5ucoqkgs8h.cloudfront.net/ffrCm/1/
Last edited:
Article about how gun control reduced gun violence in Australia:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-shootings-and-reduced-homicides-study-finds
Australia's gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides, study finds
Reforms still having positive effect 20 years on, as landmark study shows accelerated reduction in rates of suicide and homicide deaths caused by firearms
After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, rapid-fire long guns were banned in Australia; a year later there was a mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms. In 2003, a handgun buyback program was introduced. Australian has had no fatal mass shootings since 1996.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Wednesday 22 June 2016 16.00 BST Last modified on Friday 14 July 2017 20.11 BST
Since major gun law reforms were introduced in Australia, mass shootings have not only stopped, but there has also been an accelerating reduction in rates of firearm-related homicide and suicides, a landmark study has found.
It has been two decades since rapid-fire long guns were banned in Australia, including those already in private ownership, and 19 years since the mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms by government at market price was introduced. A handgun buyback program was later introduced, in 2003.
It took one massacre: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur
Read more
Researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University analysed data on intentional suicide and homicide deaths caused by firearms from the National Injury Surveillance Unit, and intentional firearm death rates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the period after the 1996 reforms, rates of total homicides and suicides from all causes were also examined to consider whether people may have substituted guns for alternative means.
From 1979 to 1996, the average annual rate of total non-firearm suicide and homicide deaths was rising at 2.1% per year. Since then, the average annual rate of total non-firearm suicide and homicide deaths has been declining by 1.4%, with the researchers concluding there was no evidence of murderers moving to other methods, and that the same was true for suicide.
The average decline in total firearm deaths accelerated significantly, from a 3% decline annually before the reforms to a 5% decline afterwards, the study found.
In the 18 years to 1996, Australia experienced 13 fatal mass shootings in which 104 victims were killed and at least another 52 were wounded. There have been no fatal mass shootings since that time, with the study defining a mass shooting as having at least five victims.
The findings were published in the influential Journal of the American Medical Association on Thursday, days after the US Senate rejected a string of Republican and Democrat measures to restrict guns. The reforms were proposed in response to the deadliest mass shooting in US history, at an LGBTI nightclub in Orlando.
The 1996 reforms introduced in Australia came just months after a mass shooting known as the Port Arthur massacre, when Martin Bryant used two semi-automatic rifles to kill 35 people and wound 23 others in Port Arthur, Tasmania. The reforms had the support of all major political parties.
When will the US learn from Australia? Stricter gun control laws save lives
Rebecca Peters
Read more
The lead author of the study, Professor Simon Chapman, said a similar study had been conducted 10 years ago, and that the researchers had repeated it to see if gun-related deaths were continuing to decline, finding that they had.
“I’ve calculated that for every person in Australia shot in a massacre, 139 [people] are shot through firearm-related suicide or homicides, so they are much more common,” Chapman said.
“We found that homicide and suicide firearms deaths had been falling before the reforms, but the rate of the fall accelerated for both of them after the reforms. We’ve shown that a major policy intervention designed to stop mass shootings has had an effect on other gun-related deaths as well.”
Advertisement
He said the researchers had chosen to publish the results in an American medical journal not just because the title was a prestigious one, but also because the findings would have a greater impact.
However, he does not believe the findings will have an impact on gun ownership laws in the US.
“The US is a good example of where evidence is going to take longer to prevail over fear and ideology,” he said.
“When people like [Republican candidate] Donald Trump talk about gun violence, he’s essentially not talking about the facts or the evidence, he’s talking about ideology and saying people want the right to protect themselves and their homes.
“The irony is the person you have to protect yourself most from in a home is the person who owns the gun.”
Chapman said more than half of those who had conducted mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand had been licensed gun holders.
Port Arthur survivors remember – and say gun laws must never change
Read more
A co-author of the paper, Associate Professor Philip Alpers, who is also the founding director of GunPolicy.org, said it was “amazing” that the reforms were still having a positive effect 20 years after they were first introduced.
“When these laws came in the hope was they would curb mass shooting, but what we didn’t realise was the laws would be followed by huge changes in other types of shootings, particularly in suicide,” he said.
“The breadth of the change was unexpected. But in America, things will get worse before they get better. In Australia we had a government that was prepared to act, and what [the then prime minister] John Howard did amounted to the confiscation of private property.
“You just can’t imagine the US ever seeing that as feasible.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-shootings-and-reduced-homicides-study-finds
Australia's gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides, study finds
Reforms still having positive effect 20 years on, as landmark study shows accelerated reduction in rates of suicide and homicide deaths caused by firearms
After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, rapid-fire long guns were banned in Australia; a year later there was a mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms. In 2003, a handgun buyback program was introduced. Australian has had no fatal mass shootings since 1996.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Wednesday 22 June 2016 16.00 BST Last modified on Friday 14 July 2017 20.11 BST
Since major gun law reforms were introduced in Australia, mass shootings have not only stopped, but there has also been an accelerating reduction in rates of firearm-related homicide and suicides, a landmark study has found.
It has been two decades since rapid-fire long guns were banned in Australia, including those already in private ownership, and 19 years since the mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms by government at market price was introduced. A handgun buyback program was later introduced, in 2003.
It took one massacre: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur
Read more
Researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University analysed data on intentional suicide and homicide deaths caused by firearms from the National Injury Surveillance Unit, and intentional firearm death rates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the period after the 1996 reforms, rates of total homicides and suicides from all causes were also examined to consider whether people may have substituted guns for alternative means.
From 1979 to 1996, the average annual rate of total non-firearm suicide and homicide deaths was rising at 2.1% per year. Since then, the average annual rate of total non-firearm suicide and homicide deaths has been declining by 1.4%, with the researchers concluding there was no evidence of murderers moving to other methods, and that the same was true for suicide.
The average decline in total firearm deaths accelerated significantly, from a 3% decline annually before the reforms to a 5% decline afterwards, the study found.
In the 18 years to 1996, Australia experienced 13 fatal mass shootings in which 104 victims were killed and at least another 52 were wounded. There have been no fatal mass shootings since that time, with the study defining a mass shooting as having at least five victims.
The findings were published in the influential Journal of the American Medical Association on Thursday, days after the US Senate rejected a string of Republican and Democrat measures to restrict guns. The reforms were proposed in response to the deadliest mass shooting in US history, at an LGBTI nightclub in Orlando.
The 1996 reforms introduced in Australia came just months after a mass shooting known as the Port Arthur massacre, when Martin Bryant used two semi-automatic rifles to kill 35 people and wound 23 others in Port Arthur, Tasmania. The reforms had the support of all major political parties.
When will the US learn from Australia? Stricter gun control laws save lives
Rebecca Peters
Read more
The lead author of the study, Professor Simon Chapman, said a similar study had been conducted 10 years ago, and that the researchers had repeated it to see if gun-related deaths were continuing to decline, finding that they had.
“I’ve calculated that for every person in Australia shot in a massacre, 139 [people] are shot through firearm-related suicide or homicides, so they are much more common,” Chapman said.
“We found that homicide and suicide firearms deaths had been falling before the reforms, but the rate of the fall accelerated for both of them after the reforms. We’ve shown that a major policy intervention designed to stop mass shootings has had an effect on other gun-related deaths as well.”
Advertisement
He said the researchers had chosen to publish the results in an American medical journal not just because the title was a prestigious one, but also because the findings would have a greater impact.
However, he does not believe the findings will have an impact on gun ownership laws in the US.
“The US is a good example of where evidence is going to take longer to prevail over fear and ideology,” he said.
“When people like [Republican candidate] Donald Trump talk about gun violence, he’s essentially not talking about the facts or the evidence, he’s talking about ideology and saying people want the right to protect themselves and their homes.
“The irony is the person you have to protect yourself most from in a home is the person who owns the gun.”
Chapman said more than half of those who had conducted mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand had been licensed gun holders.
Port Arthur survivors remember – and say gun laws must never change
Read more
A co-author of the paper, Associate Professor Philip Alpers, who is also the founding director of GunPolicy.org, said it was “amazing” that the reforms were still having a positive effect 20 years after they were first introduced.
“When these laws came in the hope was they would curb mass shooting, but what we didn’t realise was the laws would be followed by huge changes in other types of shootings, particularly in suicide,” he said.
“The breadth of the change was unexpected. But in America, things will get worse before they get better. In Australia we had a government that was prepared to act, and what [the then prime minister] John Howard did amounted to the confiscation of private property.
“You just can’t imagine the US ever seeing that as feasible.”
Master_Yoda77
Juggalo
Jesus Christ, you expect me to read that sort of shit on a fucking heavy metal forum? Fuck, man. I'm sitting here sipping on a skunk beer and blasting Amebix. I don't give a shit.
Save that for the Town Hall meeting.
Save that for the Town Hall meeting.
CiG
Approximately Infinite Universe
There is so much horseshit peppered throughout these posts, but essentially yes I understand the logic behind gun restriction here in Australia, that a bunch of pearl-clutching milquetoast authoritarians overreacted to a single mass shooting and decided to hand power to the nannies.
As much as I respect John Howard as a prime minister, he made a mistake I think. I grew up in bush communities and on farms, I don't have this retarded paralyzing fear of firearms like so many suburban and urban Australians do.
Australians are really bad when it comes to allowing government power to do fucked up stuff in order that they might feel safe. For example, someone gets bitten by a shark here and suddenly the government dispatches hordes of small-cocked shark hunters to wipe out all the sharks even remotely near Australian shores.
And once you've been jumped by gangs of people with knives, syringes, poles etc the idea that we are now more safe due to gun regulations becomes a fuzzy bourgeois dream, thought up by douchebags who drive through hellhole gun-free zone areas, locking their doors and thinking to themselves "we did our part" when all they did was take away someones ability to protect themselves against cunts who didn't follow the laws to begin with.
Nobody ever points out the lower gun crime rates in countries with lax gun regulation, they only ever cite the countries that prove their point and when they do this with Australia they never point out the rates of crime that involve weapons that aren't guns. Violence doesn't just suddenly go away when you remove guns, what does go away however is the efficiency with which law-abiding citizens can protect themselves. Much easier to fight off a home invasion if you have a gun rather than a baseball bat, especially if you're anybody other than a strong male.
As much as I respect John Howard as a prime minister, he made a mistake I think. I grew up in bush communities and on farms, I don't have this retarded paralyzing fear of firearms like so many suburban and urban Australians do.
Australians are really bad when it comes to allowing government power to do fucked up stuff in order that they might feel safe. For example, someone gets bitten by a shark here and suddenly the government dispatches hordes of small-cocked shark hunters to wipe out all the sharks even remotely near Australian shores.
And once you've been jumped by gangs of people with knives, syringes, poles etc the idea that we are now more safe due to gun regulations becomes a fuzzy bourgeois dream, thought up by douchebags who drive through hellhole gun-free zone areas, locking their doors and thinking to themselves "we did our part" when all they did was take away someones ability to protect themselves against cunts who didn't follow the laws to begin with.
Nobody ever points out the lower gun crime rates in countries with lax gun regulation, they only ever cite the countries that prove their point and when they do this with Australia they never point out the rates of crime that involve weapons that aren't guns. Violence doesn't just suddenly go away when you remove guns, what does go away however is the efficiency with which law-abiding citizens can protect themselves. Much easier to fight off a home invasion if you have a gun rather than a baseball bat, especially if you're anybody other than a strong male.
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
Until the government pulls a gun on you and takes all your shit.
Why aren't you talking about all the times crimes were stopped by law abiding citizens using guns? Cognitive dissonance.
Yet you're anti gun so why the sudden turn?
Last edited:
Carpe Mortem
Benevolently Batshit
- Aug 21, 2013
- 3,745
- 1,330
- 113
Man, I haven't gone shooting in like a year. There's a great outdoor range not far where the guy let's me use his black powder pistol. Mad fun. Makes me feel like I've stepped back in history.
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
@UltimateApathy Challenge accepted
Note: I don't know the veracity of these articles so I apologize if one I pick is bullshit
http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/05/gun-control-owners-criminals/
If you are saying that someone does not have the right to defend themselves IN THEIR OWN HOME, then you are hopeless.
http://www.naturalnews.com/047378_murder_sprees_armed_citizens_FBI_report.html
Note: I don't know the veracity of these articles so I apologize if one I pick is bullshit
http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/05/gun-control-owners-criminals/
If you are saying that someone does not have the right to defend themselves IN THEIR OWN HOME, then you are hopeless.
http://www.naturalnews.com/047378_murder_sprees_armed_citizens_FBI_report.html
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-guns-self-defense-charleston-20150619-story.html
"As was predictable, some of the NRA crowd blames the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, the murdered pastor of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for the deaths of eight parishioners Wednesday because as a South Carolina state legislator he supported stricter gun control (the original comment by NRA Director Charles L. Cotton seems to have been taken down, but was preserved elsewhere).
Beyond the despicable efforts to blame the victim and not the alleged gun-toting racist charged with the crimes, Cotton’s assertion reflects a common and romanticized argument by the gun lobby. If we were all armed, we would all be safe, an argument as devoid of humanity as it is of logic.
Coincidentally, just 13 hours before those atrocious killings, the Violence Policy Center released a fresh analysis of federal crime and health data that explores how often potential victims actually turned the tables. Parsing 2012 numbers, the center counted 259 justifiable gun-related homicides, or incidents in which authorities ruled that killings occurred in self-defense.
That’s in a nation in which there are some 300 million firearms, nearly one for every person (though only a little over a third of Americans own guns — and there’s an interesting take on that here, and on the ramifications of gun ownership on murder rates here, and while you’re reading links, this is of interest, too). This is also a nation in which, in 2012, there were 1.2 million violent crimes, defined as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Or, put another way, 1.2 million scenarios in which there was potential for someone to kill in self-defense.
Oh, and match those 259 justifiable homicides with the theft of about 232,000 guns each year, about 172,000 of them during burglaries. That’s a ratio of one justifiable homicide for every 896 guns put in the hands of criminals.
Those 259 justifiable homicides also pale compared with, in the same year, 8,342 criminal homicides using guns, 20,666 suicides with guns, and 548 fatal unintentional shootings, according to the FBI’s Supplemental Homicide Report. The ratio for 2012, per the Violence Policy Center, was one justifiable killing for every 32 murders, suicides or accidental deaths (the ratio increases to 38-1 over the five-year period ending in 2012). That’s a heavy price to pay.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? The notion that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun is a romanticized vision of the nature of violent crime.
The center also dives into the thorny thicket of how often the presence of a gun stops a crime — either violent or against property, such as a burglary — from happening. The gun lobby trots out an annual figure of 2.5 million such instances. But an analysis of five years’ worth of stats collected by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey puts the number much, much lower — about 67,740 times a year.
It’s also useful, as the Violence Policy Center does, to dig into the relationships among the attackers and those who kill in self-defense. Over the five-year span ending in 2012, more than half — 56% — of the justifiable homicides involved strangers, and in 11% of the cases, the relationship was not reported. The rest were acquaintances (18.7%) such as neighbors and coworkers, and then a mishmash of relatives and personal relationships.
Conversely, of the 2012 criminal firearm homicides in which a relationship was reported, three out of four victims knew their killers, and more than a third were family members or "intimate acquaintances" — such as spouses, ex-spouses or others involved in a romantic relationship.
And those suicides? About half of all suicides are committed with guns, and seven in 10 by men, who also account for 74% of gun owners in the country.
Oddly, given these combined statistics, nearly half of gun owners say they keep weapons because it makes them feel safer, a proportion that has increased dramatically since 1999 even though violent crime has been in a steady decline.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? The notion that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun is a romanticized vision of the nature of violent crime. And that the sea of guns in which we live causes exponentially more danger and harm than good. It's long past time to start emphasizing the "well-regulated" phrase in the 2nd Amendment."
"As was predictable, some of the NRA crowd blames the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, the murdered pastor of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for the deaths of eight parishioners Wednesday because as a South Carolina state legislator he supported stricter gun control (the original comment by NRA Director Charles L. Cotton seems to have been taken down, but was preserved elsewhere).
Beyond the despicable efforts to blame the victim and not the alleged gun-toting racist charged with the crimes, Cotton’s assertion reflects a common and romanticized argument by the gun lobby. If we were all armed, we would all be safe, an argument as devoid of humanity as it is of logic.
Coincidentally, just 13 hours before those atrocious killings, the Violence Policy Center released a fresh analysis of federal crime and health data that explores how often potential victims actually turned the tables. Parsing 2012 numbers, the center counted 259 justifiable gun-related homicides, or incidents in which authorities ruled that killings occurred in self-defense.
That’s in a nation in which there are some 300 million firearms, nearly one for every person (though only a little over a third of Americans own guns — and there’s an interesting take on that here, and on the ramifications of gun ownership on murder rates here, and while you’re reading links, this is of interest, too). This is also a nation in which, in 2012, there were 1.2 million violent crimes, defined as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Or, put another way, 1.2 million scenarios in which there was potential for someone to kill in self-defense.
Oh, and match those 259 justifiable homicides with the theft of about 232,000 guns each year, about 172,000 of them during burglaries. That’s a ratio of one justifiable homicide for every 896 guns put in the hands of criminals.
Those 259 justifiable homicides also pale compared with, in the same year, 8,342 criminal homicides using guns, 20,666 suicides with guns, and 548 fatal unintentional shootings, according to the FBI’s Supplemental Homicide Report. The ratio for 2012, per the Violence Policy Center, was one justifiable killing for every 32 murders, suicides or accidental deaths (the ratio increases to 38-1 over the five-year period ending in 2012). That’s a heavy price to pay.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? The notion that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun is a romanticized vision of the nature of violent crime.
The center also dives into the thorny thicket of how often the presence of a gun stops a crime — either violent or against property, such as a burglary — from happening. The gun lobby trots out an annual figure of 2.5 million such instances. But an analysis of five years’ worth of stats collected by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey puts the number much, much lower — about 67,740 times a year.
It’s also useful, as the Violence Policy Center does, to dig into the relationships among the attackers and those who kill in self-defense. Over the five-year span ending in 2012, more than half — 56% — of the justifiable homicides involved strangers, and in 11% of the cases, the relationship was not reported. The rest were acquaintances (18.7%) such as neighbors and coworkers, and then a mishmash of relatives and personal relationships.
Conversely, of the 2012 criminal firearm homicides in which a relationship was reported, three out of four victims knew their killers, and more than a third were family members or "intimate acquaintances" — such as spouses, ex-spouses or others involved in a romantic relationship.
And those suicides? About half of all suicides are committed with guns, and seven in 10 by men, who also account for 74% of gun owners in the country.
Oddly, given these combined statistics, nearly half of gun owners say they keep weapons because it makes them feel safer, a proportion that has increased dramatically since 1999 even though violent crime has been in a steady decline.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? The notion that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun is a romanticized vision of the nature of violent crime. And that the sea of guns in which we live causes exponentially more danger and harm than good. It's long past time to start emphasizing the "well-regulated" phrase in the 2nd Amendment."
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
Note that all your articles are posted from heavily 'anti-gun' publications. Why should the victims or law abiding citizens be punished for exercising their constitutional right?
viewerfromnihil
Vein-Marbled Tower
Not everybody believes in Atlas Shrugged.
Yes, heavily "anti-gun" sources such as university journals, newspapers, and other reputable, mainstream sources (Yahoo and one or two others excluded).
You shared a Natural News article you fuck.
I'm not necessarily in the anti-gun crowd, and I certainly have no interest in joining sides with resurrected UA (please resurrect Tom Brady instead), but I would love to see them banned just so that it would close one of the nexuses into the alternative reality of the fringe right. They may not be able to get people to subscribe entirely to their views, but god damn are they effective at inserting central tenets of their worldview into popular consciousness.
So you're going to go ahead and ignore a veritable mountain of reliably verifiable statistics because they're from supposedly "anti-gun" sources? Haha, are you really so inward-looking that you don't even realize that elsewhere in the world guns are not even a politicized issue? People in other countries simply just have the logic and common sense (and plenty of supporting statistics) to realize that freely allowing anyone to own lethal firearms is not a safe or smart thing to do, and that gun control is necessary. Oh, and as for constitutional rights - you mean the ones that were created in case the British returned for a second go-around after they lost the U.S. as a colony? Definitely very relevant nowadays, of course. Hahaha.
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
Yet HBB indicated this What is the amount of gun control you want? You can post opinion pieces all you want but I don't think you've explicitly indicated what your personal view is.:
So are you saying that all our other rights are irrelevant too?
Please post where I've explicitly indicated I want the world to be exactly like Atlas Shrugged. It is a favorite novel of mine, but my views have changed since I initially read it ~15 years ago. I don't remember the last time I read that book in its entirety...maybe 10 or so years ago?
What is 'them'? That website in particular or fringe right wing media in general? What about fringe left wing media? Why should one particular viewpoint be silenced over others? Why are the right wing media outlets any more dangerous than Communist or Marxist outlets? Isn't that showing intolerance which is what the left preaches against?
I had a disclaimer. I did a quick search at work via Google *shrug*
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HamburgerBoy
Active Member
- Sep 16, 2007
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Suicide attempt statistics are extremely difficult to interpret *because* of the gender disparity. About as many females attempt suicide in their teens as do females in all other age groups, and it's doubtful that very many of those attempts are actually serious rather than attention seeking/"cries for help". In nations where guns are less available, the male-female suicide ratio is exactly the same, but men simply hang themselves instead. While it's true that hanging has a rather higher failure rate than shooting (it's like 30% vs 10%), it's still overall a fairly reliable, male-preferred method. These studies also neglect that those at greatest risk of suicide are those that have attempted suicide, i.e. a guy that fails to hang himself at 35 could still very well try again and succeed at any point up into old age. Further, the risk factors of gun possession in suicide, while significant and repeatable, range from small to moderate. So maybe in the most optimistic case you prevent 20% of male suicides from ever happening over a person's life if you completely ban all guns, including hunting rifles and shotguns (something even nations like Sweden and Germany don't do); big deal.
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
Not only this, how many of those suicides happened with the help of something (ie drugs/alcohol)? How many people just shot or hung themselves while sober or clean? I have no idea but I would guess a decent chunk did it while under the influence of something. That goes to the attempted suicides too.
HamburgerBoy
Active Member
- Sep 16, 2007
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Alcohol is a risk factor as well. Studies have looked at it and gun possession together and iirc gun possession usually has a slight edge in terms of heightened suicide risk, but if we're banning guns, we may as well ban alcohol too (something involved both in many suicides as well as a majority of violent crimes).
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