I would too, but I think it's probably been "cracked" by another poster who suggested, in essence, that a number of adolescents attempt suicide and fail - that they are more likely to succeed if they have access to a firearm.
I would just about bet it is phony.
That's possible as well, though for now i'm favoring the "success" theory.
The main reason I suspect the suicide statistic is phony is I doubt that any government agency keeps any such records.
Some academic could have done some kind of survey. Again, it's hard to know without the source, which i don't have at present.
One thing I really disagree with you on is that I don't think I have ever seen statistics put out by a reputable pro gun group that was slanted. In fact I am often irritated that they seem so reluctant to use some that are clearly true but not absolutely provable.
I agree with you that this by and large seems to be the case. Some of the VPC "stats" are particularly egregious. The problems I've noticed on the pro-gun side definitely seem, so far to me, to be fewer and less severe. However, I've noted at least a few questionable things there as well.
The ONLY positive kids-and-guns info I found quoted a govt study that found, among many other things, that kids who owned a legal gun seemed LESS likely to commit a couple different types of crime than kids who owned either illegal guns, or no guns at all. The presentation I saw made it sound (it seemed to me) as if this conclusion was the major focus and result of the study, and that this part was more extensive and conclusive than it was.
The study compared 3 things: street crime, gun crime and drug use. I would say that statistically, there was really not terribly much difference in the latter two categories: 1 percent vs. 0 percent for gun crime and 15 pct vs. 13 pct for drug use, out of a sample of 1000. The street crime figures were more significant, 24 vs. 14 pct.
Anyway, all of this does reflect parental engagement.
The actual study is at:
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/urdel.pdf ...
The same people are probably more determined to kill themselves and would possibly find even more deadly means if there were no guns. (Believe it or not, many people shoot themselves in the head and survive). For example driving your car into a bridge abutment at 100 mph.
I have seen many reports that girls fail at suicide at a far greater rate than boys. It is also true that girls tend to use drug overdoses.
I can't quote the studies but am certain it has been determined over and over that the reason girls don't succeed as often as boys is that they really aren't determined to succeed.
Despite the previous statements, I still don't even think the statistics are accurate because just about anyone who really wants a gun can get one, and as I said even if they are, they are meaningless.