![]() Partner and Familial Violence Are a Huge Part of the Problem But this is where our resources and efforts should be focused.Īttempting to stop suicide by imposing gun control is like trying to stop drunk driving by banning cars: it’s a completely implausible “solution” that elides the actual problem at hand. Discussions of different medications, cognitive therapies, wellness practices, and other measures are far beyond the scope of this article. There is an enormous literature on suicide prevention and the best ways to help people who are struggling with mental health issues. In this sense, a gun-control approach to suicide prevention is not merely useless-it’s actually counterproductive. Moreover, gun control measures such as red flag laws that seek to deprive people of their guns on an ostensible mental-health basis can actually deter struggling people from seeking the help they need. So, there’s no hypothetical in which popular gun control proposals like an “assault weapons ban” or magazine capacity restriction would make a difference concerning suicide. Virtually any sort of firearm would suffice to take one’s own life, as well as other means. If we meet gun control groups like Giffords on their own terms and accept the inclusive statistic of “gun deaths” as our metric, it’s clear that gun violence ought to be addressed primarily through a mental health and suicide-prevention paradigm.Ĭan gun control be part of a suicide prevention strategy? A report in the Harvard Political Review noted that suicides accounted for nearly two-thirds of 2019’s gun deaths. If you visit the statistics page of the website for the anti-gun group Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, you’re immediately confronted with an enormous banner: “38,000 AMERICANS DIE FROM GUN VIOLENCE EVERY YEAR-AN AVERAGE OF 100 PER DAY.” However, that banner omits the fact that most of those deaths are suicides. ![]() Suicide is the Central Problem of American Gun Violence The following four observations about American violence suggest some promising alternative paradigms. In this context, it’s evident that gun control cannot solve the problem of violence in this country. No matter what laws are passed, widespread distribution and access to firearms are (and will remain) immutable facts of American life-especially for people who are willing to break laws. Consider the 400 million guns already in private circulation, plus the totally irreversible and ever-increasing ease of the self-manufacturing of firearms. But it’s even less viable in the particular context of the United States. Gun control’s coexistence with the values of a free society is, at best, an uneasy one. In addition, the enforcement of stringent gun control invariably inflicts heavy burdens upon other civil liberties-especially in poorer communities and among marginalized populations. Gun control burdens the free exercise of the constitutionally-protected Second Amendment right to bear arms, so it’s subject to compelling legal challenges and is flatly rejected by many Americans. But even if gun control was effective, it would still be flawed. Indeed, any statistical connection between gun policy and violence is tenuous. ![]() The gun-control paradigm-the idea that the solution to American violence is more laws restricting guns-is unhelpful.
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