2013 America (and Friends!) Gun Violence Thread No Plows Allowed!

[djzombie]

Yeah, most of the studies I've seen where implementing gun control helps/removing gun control hurts point to a change in the suicide rate as the main factor (and we can all agree that reducing suicides is a worthy effort hopefully)

So you think someone intent on ending their life isn't going to do it because they don't have a gun available? Plenty of other ways to accomplish that task. Some are even easier.

[archibaldcrane]

The studies show they don't try as often and are less successful when they try if guns aren't as readily available.

[Blubbartron]

So you think someone intent on ending their life isn't going to do it because they don't have a gun available? Plenty of other ways to accomplish that task. Some are even easier.

Suicide is something that's more often an emotional, impulsive act. Most people don't have the necessary materials for an equally quick, effective, and relatively painless death at hand all the time. So yeah, if people don't have the means to the end, they're less likely to actually do something when they experience the impulse.

[archibaldcrane]

Well put.

[Inshiya]

Not to go into specifics, but I suffered from depression as an adolescent. I tried hanging myself and failed in the attempt (mostly because of a bad knot and me resisting it). Had I tried with a gun I wouldn't be here.

Easy access to guns drastically increases the chances that you will attempt and succeed in suicide. Everyone gets sad. Everyone has down times. A LOT of people suffer from clinical depression.

[thetruepandagod]

Is there a reason people shoot themselves in the head instead of the heart? If I was committing suicide with a gun the last possible outcome I would ever want is survival with brain damage.

[Melena]

Is there a reason people shoot themselves in the head instead of the heart? If I was committing suicide with a gun the last possible outcome I would ever want is survival with brain damage.

Probably due to the fact the majority of people can't tell exactly where their heart is in their body, plus the fact the bullet can be moved/stopped by bone, thus making death (if fatal) much slower and more agonizing, whereas one to the head, a split second of pain and then it's done.

[FNH]

Probably due to the fact the majority of people can't tell exactly where their heart is in their body, plus the fact the bullet can be moved/stopped by bone, thus making death (if fatal) much slower and more agonizing, whereas one to the head, a split second of pain and then it's done.

Not 100%. I'll share a story of a guy I went to school with if you want.

[Melena]

Might want to spoil it, i'm sure others may want to read it but may fall under the NSFL bs, but i'm always curious about that sort of stuff. Then again though, for a while, I was the only IT person in the Sheriff's office that would even set foot in the autopsy room if they were working on a body at the time I was over there.

[Blubbartron]

Don't you have to use an extremely small caliber bullet or super weak round (in terms of cartridge size/powder for penetration) in order to live through shooting yourself in the brain? The only other way it should be possible is if you really, REALLY screw up the aim. If you put it in your mouth and just aim straight up (instead of more back than up, towards brain stem), yeah, you could shoot off your face without really injuring your brain too traumatically, but that's a pretty big fuck up.

[FNH]

ok

Spoiler: show

His girlfriend broke up with him, so he went home with the intent to kill himself. He stuck a shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger. It was loaded with bird shot. The result was a completely destroyed mandible, tongue and soft tissue of his palate. His nose was pretty much gone too. Most of the pellets stopped in the bony structure of the palate, but a few pellets passed to the brain causing partial blindness and some issues with higher mental function. This guy walked around the house for nearly 2 hours until his Dad came home. He experienced all that pain and didn't even get enough brain damage to not have to endure the result of his attempt. Like he had problems with fine motor function, but he was back to school in a special needs program after a while.

[Byrthnoth]

Depends. Shooting yourself in the head is probably not the "lights out" we imagine it as. Unless you hit the right spot, there is a lot of brain you can live without. People commonly shoot their faces off while causing somewhat minimal brain damage by putting the gun under their chins. With prompt medical care, a lot of these people survive. Without prompt medical care, any headshot will make you die of blood loss eventually. The area to take out is the brain stem. I do not know if it would feel painless, but you would definitely die.

[zoobernut]

We had that happen in the town where I grew up. Guy shot himself in the head with a shotgun survived the first blast, reloaded then shot himself again.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Getting off topic, here. This is not the "what would feel if you killed yourself in ____ way?" thread.

[Roranora]

Wow. Can it be the "I didn't know so many of us had failed shotgun suicide attempts in our school or town" thread just for a few posts?

Had one in my hs too. Died after about 12 hours, most of which was at the hospital. Also a hanging and a legit Russian roulette. Three suicides during my years there and most of them involved easily accessed guns during these impulsive, emotional moments of great anguish.

[thetruepandagod]

Don't you have to use an extremely small caliber bullet or super weak round (in terms of cartridge size/powder for penetration) in order to live through shooting yourself in the brain? The only other way it should be possible is if you really, REALLY screw up the aim. If you put it in your mouth and just aim straight up (instead of more back than up, towards brain stem), yeah, you could shoot off your face without really injuring your brain too traumatically, but that's a pretty big fuck up.

Ever since I saw that story of a kid getting shot in the face with a magnum and living with half his brain/skull gone I decided any bullets I shoot are going directly into my chest.

[Churchill]

Yeah, there are numerous places that a stab or cut will kill you in under 2 minutes. Most of those are faster, most of those you lose consciousness pretty quickly. All of those can be googled, probably pretty quickly. All of them are as deadly as gunshots.

[Ksandra]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...230-story.html

Mom shot and killed her 27 year old daughter thinking she was an intruder in the home.

[Talint]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...230-story.html

Mom shot and killed her 27 year old daughter thinking she was an intruder in the home.

Man if there was only a good guy with a gun to stop the mom with a gun.

[Niiro]

That's why the phrase is "good guy with a gun".

Ha, women, amirite?