Thursday, October 06, 2022

Another reason to restrict hand guns

I haven’t even mentioned the biggest example of how our inability to understand suicide costs lives: roughly 40,000 Americans commit suicide every year, half of whom do so by shooting themselves. Handguns are the suicide method of choice in the United States—and the problem with that, of course, is that handguns are uniquely deadly. Handguns are America’s town gas. What would happen if the U.S. did what the British did, and somehow eradicated its leading cause of suicide [coal gas/town gas]? It’s not hard to imagine. It would uncouple the suicidal from their chosen method. And those few who were determined to try again would be forced to choose from far-less-deadly options, such as overdosing on pills, which is fifty-five times less likely to result in death than using a gun. A very conservative estimate is that banning handguns would save 10,000 lives a year, just from thwarted suicides. That’s a lot of people.—Talking to Strangers, 276 note

2 comments:

Gary Greig said...

Hi James. This is Gary Greig.
I love your recent Thu 10/6 post!!
Catherine and I agree 100% with what you said quoting Roger Olson.

How would I get an email to you about a copy-editing job possibility?

Please email (gsgreig@gmail.com) or text or call me 805-258-8996.

God bless you and yours,

Gary

Gary Greig said...

James,
I am representing a friend who can pay for a copy-editing job at whatever your rates would be.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Gary