Strict state gun laws could lead to drops in suicide, study says

[SecularMotion]

(CNN)State laws that restrict access to guns could reduce the rate of firearm-related suicide, according to new research.

Researchers examined suicide rates in Connecticut and Missouri, two states that changed their permit-to-purchase handgun laws in recent decades. Connecticut passed a law in 1995 that requires people to apply for a permit with local law enforcement and take eight hours of gun safety training before they can buy a firearm. In 2007 in Missouri, the state repealed a 1921 law that required people to apply with the local police to buy a gun.

The rate of gun-related suicide in Connecticut in the 10 years after its law passed was 15% lower than what researchers predict it would have been had the law not been passed. The researchers made this prediction based on the suicide rate between 1995 and 2005 in Rhode Island and North Dakota, which have similar demographics as Connecticut, and which also had similar suicide rates as Connecticut in the years before its law (1981-1994).

In contrast, the gun-related suicide rate in Missouri was 16% higher from 2007 to 2011 than researchers predict it would have been based on the rates in the comparable states of North Carolina and Nebraska.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/02/health/gun-laws-lead-to-suicide-drop/

[gejohnston]

1. associated, meaning no cause and effect

and no evidence of cause and effect. post hoc ergo propter hoc. That is why most health studies are mostly bullshit.

[hack89]

2. Better health care and a national anti-suicide campaign would save even more lives.

lets do that first.

[SecularMotion]

4. Means Matter

Firearms are the most lethal and most common method of suicide in the U.S. More people who die by suicide use a gun than all other methods combined. Suicide attempts with a firearm are almost always fatal, while those with other methods are less likely to kill. Nine out of ten people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide later.

Every U.S. study that has examined the relationship has found that access to firearms is a risk factor for suicides. Firearm owners are not more suicidal than non-firearm owners; rather, their suicide attempts are more likely to be fatal. Many suicide attempts are made with little planning during a short-term crisis period. If highly lethal means are made less available to impulsive attempters and they substitute less lethal means, or temporarily postpone their attempt, the odds are increased that they will survive. Studies in a variety of countries have indicated that when access to a highly lethal and leading suicide method is reduced, the overall suicide rate drops driven by a drop in the restricted method.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/

[hack89]

6. So what laws prevent suicides?

I can understand temporarily taking away guns from people that are clearly a threat to themselves or others but what else?

[ileus]

3. Don't try suicide....good song from my youth.

[Straw Man]

5. The 1995 Connecticut law ...

... only affected handguns. Access to long guns remained as before. A comparison of rates of suicide by handgun vs. by long gun would have been necessary before any claim could be made.

Furthermore, the methodology by which they made their predictions of what rates would have otherwise been is murky and inadequately explained.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Someone forgot to tell Japan

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. Apples and oranges

In Japan, Columbine would show as 15 suicides.

[ManiacJoe]

11. Excellent point about Japan's odd crime definitions.

[branford]

9. If we had stricter gun laws, our suicide rates might be comparable to

Europe, Canada and Australia. Oh, wait...

Need I even mention the suicide rates of the gun control utopias of Japan and South Korean...

[Eleanors38]

10. meh.