A Reasonable Looks at Guns and Suicide

Reason Magazine, as per its name, lends some reason on the subject of firearms and suicide in what is part II of our look at statistics and hysterics in the post-Heller media.

With the subhead "Why buying a gun is not a suicidal act", Reason editor and Chicago Tribune contributor Steve Chapman is clearly prepared to take anti-gun 'experts' to task and ask two very relevant questions:

1. Does access to firearms increase the suicide rate?
2. When it comes to gun control policy, does it even matter?

Naturally, Chapman is not afraid to address the questions that the media is too afraid to ask. Perhaps they are too complacent to do the research. Perhaps they are too complicit and don't want to reveal facts contrary to their presuppositions. Thankfully, Reason is there to pick up the slack:

People who use guns are generally hellbent on ending their lives. So deprived of a sidearm, they will no doubt find another reliable method—rather than swallow a dozen aspirin and wake up in the emergency room. Banning guns is no more likely to reduce suicides than banning ice cream is to curb obesity.

Chapman's ideas are not based on presupposition. He informs us that a National Academy of Sciences report noted that any link between firearms and suicides "is not found in comparisons across countries." In addition, our old friend Gary Kleck (criminologist from FSU) has noted that 13 published studies also have found no meaningful connection between rate of firearms ownership and suicide rate. If this debate were about another bitterly debated topic, such as global warming, the media would be leaping upon anyone who dared question the National Academy and supporting peer-reviewed materials.

With the now-dubios assurances that owning a gun will put your family in imenent danger exposed, Chapman moves to question number 2. Even if all of the hysterics and scare tactics were completely accurate, would that be enough reason to regulate personal safety over personal choices and constitutional rights?

But let's suppose science could establish that people who obtain firearms do indeed increase their death rate...from suicide. So what? Buying a car may shorten your lifespan, since traffic accidents are a major killer. Building a backyard swimming pool creates a potential fatal hazard to you and your loved ones. But nobody says the government should interfere with such decisions.

His tone may sound callous, but the debate is about freedoms and logic, not about feelings and emotions.