Yes, I'm not ignoring that. That was part of my point. But, I also include suicide as 'murder' in these numbers. Guns are great tool, and many people use them for suicide. Culturally, that is also why the states[bottom 10] have the least gun ownership also have the lowest suicide rates in the US.
Utterly insane. Guns don’t cause suicide.
Nope. Suicide was one of Canada’s rationale for banning or heavily restricting handguns.
What happened: the suicide rate remained the same. People just switched to other means.
No one commits suicide because there’s a gun within reach. They kill themselves because of a mental illness and the gun or rope or bottle of pills or car exhaust fumes are all merely means to the same end.
Outlawing guns changes nothing with regard to suicide and it certainly won’t make people change their minds get help.
And I don’t mean to be flippant about the subject, either. It is a dark topic and I wish there were some way to reach through to every person in that mental distress and get them the help they need. But, taking away sane peoples’ means of self protection isn’t it.
Do you really believe suicidal behavior is caused by gun ownership?