VPC attempting to link concealed carry to suicide

Violence Policy Center executive director Josh Sugarmann is gleefully shouting from the rooftops that concealed carry licensees in Michigan are statistically more likely to commit suicide than is the general population. The Huffington Post presents Sugarmann's latest triumph:

According to information from the Michigan State Police, for the period July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, 29 of Michigan's 164,793 concealed handgun license holders took their own lives for a concealed handgun license holder suicide rate of 17.6 per 100,000 license holders. For the period July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009, 28 of Michigan's 182,749 concealed handgun license holders took their own lives for a concealed handgun license holder suicide rate of 15.3 per 100,000 license holders.

In comparison, in 2007 Michigan's suicide rate for the general population was 11.3 per 100,000. In 2008, the suicide rate for the general population was 11.7 per 100,000.

Well, OK--suicide is tragic and devastating--but what would Sugarmann have us do about it? Is it his contention that these suicides could have been avoided, if those concealed carry licensees who eventually committed suicide had been denied the licenses? That would, obviously, be a very difficult position for him to attempt to defend. Having a gun is not necessary to commit suicide (witness Japan's much higher suicide rate than in the U.S.--Japan's ultra-restrictive "gun control" laws notwithstanding). A concealed carry license has even far less to do with one's ability to kill oneself. Note also that Sugarmann doesn't even claim that the suicides in question were even committed with guns.

http://gunfacts.info/ (with peer-reviewed references)

Myth: Japan has strict gun control and a less violent society

Fact: In Japan, the murder rate is almost 1 per 100,000. In the U.S., there are about 3.2 murders per 100,000 people each year by weapons other than firearms.66 This means that even if firearms in the U.S. could be eliminated, we would still have three times the murder rate of the Japanese. Japan’s murder rate may be low, but its suicide rate is over 20 per 100,000 people. Japanese are being murdered and committing suicide at a rate of about 21 per 100,000. In the U.S., our combined murder and suicide rate is about 21 also.

Myth: The availability of guns causes crime

Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen.132 As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America.

Myth: Handguns are 43 times more likely to kill a family member than a criminal

Fact: Of the 43 deaths reported in this flawed study, 37 (86%) were suicides. Other deaths involved criminal activity between the family members (drug deals gone bad).

Fact: Of the remaining deaths, the deceased family members include felons, drug dealers, violent spouses committing assault, and other criminals.

Fact: Only 0.1% (1 in a thousand) of the defensive uses of guns results in the death of the predator.150 This means you are much more likely to prevent a crime without bloodshed than hurt a family member.

Myth: Private ownership of guns is not effective in preventing crime

Fact: Every year, people in the United States use guns to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times – more than 6,500 people a day, or once every 13 seconds.151 Of these instances, 15.6% of the people using firearms defensively stated that they "almost certainly" saved their lives by doing so. Firearms are used 60 times more often to protect lives than to take lives.

Fact: In 83.5% (2,087,500) of these successful gun defenses, the attacker either threatened or used force first, proving that guns are very well suited for self-defense.

Fact: The rate of defensive gun use (SGU) is six times that of criminal gun use.

Fact: Of the 2,500,000 times citizens use guns to defend themselves, 92% merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers.

Fact: Less than 8% of the time does a citizen wound his or her attacker, and in less than one in a thousand instances is the attacker killed.

Fact: Of all forms of firearm homicide, 13% are civilian legal defensive homicides.

Fact: For every accidental death, suicide, or homicide with a firearm, 10 lives are saved through defensive use.

Fact: When using guns in self-defense, 91.1% of the time not a single shot is fired.

Myth: More than 1,300 children commit suicide with guns

Fact: This statistic includes “children” ages 18-19.247 As established previously, a child is defined as a person between birth and the age of 13 or 14 (puberty).

Fact: Worldwide, the per capita suicide rate is fairly static (the suicide rate of the U.S. isbanned). A certain fraction of the population will commit suicide regardless of the available tools.

Fact: The overall rate of suicide (firearm and non-firearm) among children age 15 and under was virtually unchanged in states that passed and maintained “safe storage” laws for four or more years..

Fact: Among young girls, 71% of all suicides are by hanging or suffocation.

Fact: People, including children, who are determined to commit suicide will find a way. There is a documented case of a man who killed himself by drilling a hole in his skull by using a power drill.

Fact: Banning country music might be more effective – one study shows 51% of the music-influenced suicide differential can be traced to country music.

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