As A Matter of Fact, We Can't All Agree to 'Safe Gun Storage' :: 09/10/2014

The Connecticut-based editorial board of the theday.com has a great idea — let's lock up guns so that people can't use them to commit suicide! The article's title, 'Agree, at least, to safe gun storage' makes it clear that they consider this to be one of those “simple, straight-forward, common-sense” restrictions so beloved of those who favor civilian disarmament.

I mean surely we can all agree that reducing suicide rates is a good thing and safe storage laws can hardly be counted as infringements on the natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil and Constitutional right to own and carry the weapon of your choice. Right? To “prove” their point they offer up lots of facts with very little context. Naturally I feel honor-bound to provide that context . . .

From their very first sentence:

Americans are twice as likely to kill themselves with a gun than[sic] be murdered with a gun used by someone else.

Looking at the CDC’s WISQARS numbers from 2002 – 2011 (and correcting the ed board's grammar) that should be, “Americans are 1.47 times as likely to kill themselves with a gun as be murdered …” but setting that aside, so what? Americans are 3.35 times as likely to kill themselves without a gun as they are to be murdered with something other than a gun. Indeed, if you were as logically bereft as the writers at theday.com (and not as insufferably hoplophobic), you might be able to use that as a reason to own a gun.

The editorial, failing to make the connection between a lack of guns and a higher rate of non-firearm suicides, continues:

And they are four or five times more likely to use a gun to kill themselves if they live in a gun friendly state like Alaska, Wyoming, Montana or Idaho than in a state with strict gun laws like New Jersey, New York or Connecticut.

Hmm, I wonder how they explain the fact that the four “gun friendly” states have an average non-firearm suicide rate of 7.15 while their “strict” states average rate is 5.06?

Not as attention-grabbing as their “four or five times more likely” but still unexplained.

Better yet, let's look at the suicide rates of some foreign countries, shall we? According to the editorial's “logic”, Russia, Japan, Canada and the UK should have extremely low suicide rates since they all have extremely tough gun laws, whereas Canada, Switzerland, and Norway, being (relatively) awash with guns, should have higher suicide rates.

Oh, wait, Canada is on there twice . . . oops. Anyway, the table pretty well disposes of the whole idea that more guns mean more suicides.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/09/bruce-krafft/matter-fact-cant-agree-safe-gun-storage/