More good news about liberalized gun laws...from gun ban extremists!

June 14, 2004
Jointogether.org

Teen Gun Suicide Rate Declines

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study finds that the
number of suicides by youngsters and teens declined 25 percent in the last
decade. The study also shows a significant decrease in gun suicides, the
Associated Press reported June 10.

According to the CDC report, the number of suicides declined from 2,151 in
1992 to 1,883 in 2001. Among those ages 10 to 19, suicides declined from
6.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 1992 to 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001.

The CDC report also found that hanging and other forms of suffocation
replaced self-inflicted shootings as the most common method of suicide
among 10- to 14-year-olds.

A specialist in adolescent medicine said the decline in teen suicide could
be attributed to greater acceptance of gays and new safety measures, such
as trigger locks and lock boxes, that keep guns away from children.

Commentary:
In the past ten years, concealed carry laws were passed for the first time in many states, and liberalized to make licenses available to a greater number of people in others. Each time, the gun ban lobby claimed that "the increased availability of guns would lead to more gun deaths." One of the scare tactics they frequently use is the idea that availability of a gun in a home would lead to an increased risk of suicide.

Since more and more homes have firearms in them, this finding by the CDC is yet another fine example of how gun ban extremists are finding it more and more difficult not to prove OUR point when discussing firearms statistics.

The suggestion that increased safe storage laws have played a part in this trend is incredibly weak.

As detailed in Dr. John Lott's book The Bias Against Guns, a comparison was done between states with safe storage laws and those without found that "safe storage laws have no impact on accidental gun death rates or on total suicide rates."

True to the above story, which referenced teens substituting hanging and other suffocation techniques, Lott went on to say that "while there is some weak evidence that safe storage laws reduce juvenile gun suicides, those intent on committing suicide appear to easily substitute other methods, asthe total number of juvenile suicides actually rises (however statistically insignificant) after passage of safe storage laws."

Although not applicable to this suicide story, it would be remiss if we did not add that Lott went on to say that "the only consistent impact of safe storage laws is to raise rape, robbery and burglary rates, and the effects are very large. My most conservative estimates show that safe storage laws resulted in 3,738 more rapes, 21,000 more robberies, and 49,733 more burglaries annually in the fifteen states with these laws."

Thanks once again to the Brady bunch of gun ban extremists for shining a light on the truth - that they are dead wrong.

Related Story:
More proof from gun ban extremists...that bans don't work!