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The suicide statistic is silly. With the number of Americans owning guns, one would expect that a high number of suicides may occur in a home with a gun. The number they quote makes me want to shrug my shoulders and say, "So what. Tell me what that means". The author just lets the reader imply that a gun in the home has something to do with one wanting to kill themself.

If it's "correct" as stated, then it's not silly - since it's a "twice as likely to" statistic instead of a "twice as MANY" statistic (which is a kind of statistic people often lie with).

What we AREN'T told (which would be quite helpful) is what the rate is to START with, nor are we given any indication of the sample size. For example, if we were told that one out of 20,000 adolescents in homes without guns commits suicide (but one out of 10,000 in homes with guns, then we have more info there.

It occurs to me as well that buried in this statistic may be the dynamic that adolescents in homes with guns are more likely to SUCCEED at a suicide attempt, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, it would be good to know more about what's behind the stat.

It has long since been proven those who commit suicide are NOT swayed by availability of a weapon. People who want to die by overdosing never try to slit their wrists or to shoot themselves. That is why ER's may see the same suiciders OD time and again, or why they see the same people with slashed wrists over again. Someone who wants to die by slitting their wrists would almost never chose to shoot themselves instead, just because a gun is handy.

Sorry I can't provide the source for this proof, but I know this to be fact.

If it's "correct" as stated, then it's not silly - since it's a "twice as likely to" statistic instead of a "twice as MANY" statistic (which is a kind of statistic people often lie with).

When they say "twice as likely", they mean "twice as many". All they can use is raw numbers to come to that conclusion. The entire intent is to make some correlation between having a gun in the home, and someone wanting to commit suicide as a result. Or that abscent a gun, a person would not find another way to kill themself. Its nonsense. Plain and simple.