"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
The Key Question
If ever more guns make America safer,
why are we not already the safest country in the the world?
Instead, we are the most dangerous "developed" nation on earth.
Please email your answer to:
The Key Question
If ever more guns make America safer,
why are we not already the safest country in the the world?
Instead, we are the most dangerous "developed" nation on earth.
Please email your answer to:
Higher rates of gun ownership drives up youth suicides: Every 10% spike in firearms equates to 27% increase in children taking their lives, first-of-its kind study finds
- States where a large proportion of families own guns - like Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming - have the highest rates of youth suicide in the nation
- Gun ownership accounted for 55 percent of the state-to-state variation in suicide rats in the US between 2005 and 2015, a Boston University study found
- No other risk factor is as predictive of teen and youth suicide
- The study authors urge that 'access to guns cannot be ignored'
- For every 10 percent more guns a state's residents own, 27 percent more teens and children kill themselves
More teenagers and children kill themselves in states where more people own guns, a new report reveals.
In fact, for every 10 percent higher rate of gun ownership in a given state, the rate of youth suicides goes up by nearly 27 percent, according to the new Boston University study.
In Alaska, 59.8 percent of households have guns, and the rate of suicide among teenagers and children is the highest in the nation - 15.2 per every 100,000 people between 10 and 19.
By comparison, New Jersey had the lowest rate of suicides, which accounted for just 2.6 out of every 100,000 people, and only 11.4 percent of families own guns.
Although state gun ownership and suicide rates did not align in perfect order, gun ownership rates predicted suicides more closely than any other factor, the researchers found.
Teen and child suicide rates between 2005 and 2015 were highest (dark blue) in states where gun ownership was also highest (number in white), a map of data from the new study shows
Mental illness, violence and especially suicide have all been on a steady rise in the US for years now.
Although gun ownership has remained fairly stable in the US in the last two decades, the number of children being injured or killed by them has increased.
Since 1999, over 26000 kids and teenagers have been killed by guns - whether in accidents, weapons turned on them or turned on themselves.
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, student protests reached a fever-pitch. Teenagers from the school, and then around the country, held signs high that said 'Protect Kids, Not Guns.'
And sometimes those kids need most to be protected from themselves and guns.
Yet Americans have dug their heels in further, and hung on to their guns, as they have the right to do in every state in the US.
One of the top risk factors for suicide is mere risk factors is mere access to lethal means, particularly guns, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
In 2016, nearly 6,600 youth and young adults, teens and adolescents between 10 and 24 killed themselves, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Between 2005 and 2015, youth suicides increased overall, but rates vary widely from state to state, with children in New Jersey faring best and those in Alaska suffering the highest rates of suicide.
'Suicide is a multifactorial problem, there's no one factor that causes it,' says senior study author Dr Michael Siegel, and Boston University epidemiologist.
'But what's striking about our study is the degree to which youth suicide rates were predicted by the proportion of gun ownership in the state.
'Gun ownership alone accounts for 55 percent of variation in youth suicide across the country.'
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the first of its kind, establishing the shockingly close link between gun ownership and teen and adolescent suicide at the state level.
The comprehensive research looked at a broad range of other factors - including socioeconomic class, race, gender and far more - to see if these state-to-state differences could explain the variation in suicide rates.
Collectively, their factors accounted for all but eight percent of the differences - an unusual feat when trying to analyze something as complex as suicide.
But nothing even came close to predicting suicide as clearly as gun ownership did.
In fact, even a previous suicide attempt - historically thought to be the most prominent risk factor - predicted a death by suicide with as much certainty as living in a state where firearms are readily available in a majority of households.
Reducing access to lethal means - especially guns - is one of the World Health Organization's (WHO) focuses for suicide prevention, which it endorses with a 'strong' recommendation.
The organization other prevention groups are perhaps most outspoken, however, about mental health issues.
'It's difficult because you have to tackle a lot of different risk factors, including depression, bullying, and cyber-bullying,' says Dr Siegel.
'But the message here for public health groups is that we can't ignore gun ownership and just focus on other risk factors.
'We can't tackle suicide without also tackling the issue of access to guns.'
And other research suggests that doing so would curb the rate of suicide among adults, too, although the relationship between youth suicide and gun ownership is far stronger.
Dr Siegel is realistic, though, about what access to guns might look like in a country with a strong hunting culture and a right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.
'If there was a way to lower the household prevalence of guns, that would likely improve the suicide rate,' he says.
'I'm not saying to focus on [getting rid of guns] - people have a right to them, and we're not going to take them away, but we should educate gun owners about safe storage.'
- For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here
- For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here
- For confidential support in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here
No comments:
Post a Comment