Is Buying a Gun a Suicidal Act?

Realclearpolitics ^ | 7/13/08 | Chapman

[pabianice]

Americans often buy guns for self-defense, a purpose that now has Supreme Court validation. But according to advocates of gun control, those purchasers overlook the people who pose the greatest threat: themselves. Anyone who acquires a firearm, we are told, is inviting a bloody death by suicide.

So says Matthew Miller, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If you bought a gun today, I could tell you the risk of suicide to you and your family members is going to be two- to tenfold higher over the next 20 years," he told The Washington Post. Since the chance of a gun being used for suicide is so much higher than the chance of it being used to prevent a murder, we would all be better off with fewer firearms around.

It's a rich irony -- as though smoke alarms were increasing fire fatalities. But the argument raises two questions: Is it true? And, when it comes to gun control policy, does it matter?

As it turns out, the claims about guns and suicide don't stand up well to scrutiny.

[pabianice]

"No one should have a gun. If I had one, I'd use it to kill some people I can't stand." -- my cousin's far-left husband, in New York, summer of 2002

[muawiyah]

Matthew Miller seems to have suicide and murdering his family members on his mind.

He should be watched closely.

[Graybeard58]

Anyone who acquires a firearm, we are told, is inviting a bloody death by suicide.

The crap that gun grabbers come up with gets nuttier and nuttier.

[The Toad]

"If you bought a gun today, I could tell you the risk of suicide to you and your family members is going to be two- to tenfold higher over the next 20 years,"

You can tell us that but can you prove it?

[caseinpoint]

Sounds like he is drinking the “bitter, clinging” koolaid of Obama. Oh wait, this is Harvard, probably the koolaid dispensary.

[MrEdd]

The preferred method of suicide among men is to wreck a car into something. It allows them to hide the intentional nature of their death.

The preferred method among women is an overdose. That allows them to not have disfiguring scars on their body, and to minimize pain.

Matthew Miller is an idiot.
Is he going to preach on the suicidal danger posed by owning a car?

[ladyjane]

This article is an embarrassment. It’s been highlighted in the Harvard alumni magazine and his comments should cause him to lose his professorship. Correlation is not causation. Any epidemiologist who says otherwise should know better.

[Tribune7]

Suicide rate by country. Note the U.S. is 43rd behind places with draconian gun control behind places like the PRC, Japan, France and . . . . CUBA!!!!

[Charles Martel]

Same bullshit, different decade.

IMHO, guns tend to prevent, rather than enable suicides. Just picking one up makes me happy, and happy people don't kill themselves. :-)

[umgud]

Is he going to preach on the suicidal danger posed by owning a car?

Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.

[catroina54]

wonder what the good professa has to say about acquiring a swimming pool ?
are we inviting drownings ?

[Dutch Boy]

Of course he can’t prove it. That would be impossible. What will happen is whenever a gun is used in a suicide the MSM will completely blow it out of proportion and make it seem like the numbers are huge.

[TLI]

Perhaps we should donate a nice K frame revolver to the good professor Matthew Miller, Harvard School of Public Health, so he can research his theory in depth.

[mountainlion]

Is Buying a Gun a Suicidal Act? NO it is not.

Buying into gun control or the liberal left is suicide to our founding principals.

[jrd]

somewhere on the Internet is a loaded gun with a camera on it waiting to film it shooting someone ...in the last 10 years or so it has not shot anyone...hasn't even tried!

[libstripper]

All fourteen of my guns are defective. I've had one or more for a total of 40 years, one living loaded continuously in my bedside table and another living loaded continuously in my SUV's glove compartment, a perfect recipe for death or mayhem. Noe of them has done anything. WHAT'S WRONG???

[Dick Vomer]

just like saying if you're a liberal there's a high likelihood of your son ending up in bus stops and rest stops looking for "dates"......

gee, now that I think about it.... maybe I shouldn't buy anymore guns...

[Puppage]

But according to advocates of gun control, those purchasers overlook the people who pose the greatest threat: themselves. Anyone who acquires a firearm, we are told, is inviting a bloody death by suicide

So, I guess if I buy a 2 story building, it's so I can jump off & ultimately kill myself?

I guess I am now looking to purchase a tent.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Gee. I guess I should’ve ‘offed myself’ a few times over by now, or at least taken out a family member due to my irresponsibility!

I love my guns. And yes, I’m white and bitter and I cling to them, ROFLMAO!

[Puppage]

"No one should have a gun. If I had one, I'd use it to kill some people I can't stand." -- my cousin's far-left husband

Sounds like my neighbor.

Did your cousin's husband remove all the cutlery from his kitchen?