Op-Ed: Suicide is a Major and Often Overlooked Aspect of Gun Violence
September 11, 2023
Good evening beautiful souls,
With September being suicide prevention month and related messages flooding our inboxes, at least those of us in the mental health space, I spent part of last week updating the Crisis + Helpline page on this blog and working on an opinion piece on gun suicide which accounts for more than 55% of the suicides in the U.S.
The piece cites the latest data from the CDC, explores why this type of violence is not included in gun violence conversations and proposes multi-sectoral efforts to prevent this type of suicide, which is slowly rising among Black teens (copy pasted this paragraph from my pitch - which I did on Friday night at 10pm and just learnt that the piece went up this morning...grateful for the amazing turn around for my first pitch to this outlet).
Find the piece below or read it on PennLive.com (PS: If you have read my blog post on the six books that introduced me to sociological thinking in mental health, you might be able to point out some lessons from that class)
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| Piece added to the Editorial Section of PoliticsPA.com's Playbook (Roundup of top stories across Pennsylvania) |
On Monday 28th August 2023, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill Campus shot and killed his professor. This incident sent the university into lock down for three hours and added to the growing number of gun related deaths and trauma.
Though alarming and traumatizing, this is, unfortunately, not a unique occurrence in the U.S. Over the last couple of years, reports of shootings in schools and other public spaces have been on the rise. These reports have always been followed by partisan debates on gun control and footnote mentions of mental health. While these important debates help to gauge attitudes and subsequently advise lawmakers on policies to help reduce future incidents, they fail to look at gun violence in its entirety.
An important and urgent aspect of this conversation that remains in the shadows is violence to self, or gun suicide as is popularly known.
Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that of the 48,117 lives lost to gun violence in 2022, 55%, 26,993 deaths, were due to gun suicide. Homicides, legal interventions, unintentional and undetermined cases accounted for the remaining 45%.
Leaving gun suicide out of public discussions increases fatalities and widens the service provision gap for those feeling suicidal, those left behind, and those who survive suicide attempts. It is, therefore, necessary to not only expand the current operating definition of gun violence to increase discussions but to also incorporate the effects of violence to self in conversations about gun violence and trauma to help improve service provision.
On one hand, the taboo around suicide makes it hard for those left behind and those who survive to speak about their experiences. On the other hand, citations of Papageno and Werther effects by suicide prevention advocates, make it hard for media houses to report on suicide without going into detail. A literature review of 108 research papers that examined the impact of media stories on suicide concluded that the media can be both a risk and preventative factor for suicide. The review, published by the National Library of Medicine, also noted the risk presented by regular reporting and coverage of celebrity suicides and the role positive reporting played in risk reduction.
Another reason why suicide is left out of public discourse is the view that it is a personal problem caused by individual weakness, instead of a complex public health issue with multifactorial causes. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, of the 48,183 people who died of suicide in U.S in 2022, 26,328 died of firearm suicides while 12,431 and 5,568 died of suffocation suicides and poisoning suicides respectively. This data shows the relationship between guns and suicide, and the need to not only look at why people are attempting suicide but how they are doing it.
Though guns do not cause suicide, they make it easier and increase the chances of success in comparison to other methods.
A study by Deisenhammer et al., found that the time between the first current thought of suicide and the actual attempt is 10 minutes or less. Further studies have shown that 85% of those who attempted suicide using a firearm were successful. These studies show that the presence of a firearm increases the chance of one attempting suicide and being successful. These findings also show that the onus to prevent suicide is not just on mental health professionals and individuals but also to multi-sectoral stakeholders including gun manufacturers, retailers and both proponents and opponents of gun control.
As the world prepares for World Suicide Prevention Day, advocates, survivors and the bereaved should not be the only ones speaking up about suicide and how to prevent it. To get ahead of this pressing issue public health issues, immediate and concerted multi-sectoral efforts are needed. These efforts should start with reframing how society speaks about suicide and looking at the methods people opt for.
Current studies clearly show that guns are chosen by most people in the U.S, and unlike other methods, they make attempts easier and successful. Efforts should therefore be made to reduce this ease and success rate. The Gun Shop Project is an example of a multi-sectoral approach that is working on this. Though studies of the impact of this project, which is currently operating in 21 states, are still underway, it shows the role gun shops can play in suicide prevention. The project, which began in 2009 when three people in New Hampshire, with no connection to each other, bought a firearm each from the same store and killed themselves within hours of purchase, brings together firearm retails, firearm rights advocates, mental health practitioners and members of the community to collaboratively prevent suicide by developing suicide prevention materials and guidelines on how to avoid selling firearms to people who are suicidal.
Gun suicide prevention not only helps the adults who are able to buy guns, but also the children and teens can access those guns. The latest data from the CDC shows that the number of Black teens dying of gun suicide is going up. Instead of wondering what is wrong with them, society needs to interrogate itself to understand how it is driving Black teens to take their lives, the methods they are using, and the multi-sectoral initiatives that can avert what could be a new version of deaths of despair.
If you or someone you know is struggling, use the numbers on Crisis + Helplines page.
Until the next post,
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
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