The suicide component of the gun debate

[nonoyes]

33. Good questions raised by the OP

It is a shame that the thread got so hijacked by a fool with no facts about suicidology, (yes, there is even a word for the sociological study of suicides!).

Getting back to the question of whether SOME gun owners might consider one of their needs for a gun to be to end their own life at some point, I suspect there are more than a few gun owners who might think that, but is there really any way of knowing? I mean, people who own guns will rarely voice that, (perhaps only on a message board where they can be anonymous).

But EVEN IF we had the most restrictive nationwide regulation, registration, and licensing of gun owners, those people with a sincere desire to end their life with a gun could find a way, often with planning well in advance, and a legal purchase of a handgun.

Just my random thoughts so far on this. Basically, I don't think opposition to gun control legislation has much to do with people who wish to carry out their own suicide. But it is true that guns are the most effective means of taking one's own life, and that more people die from suicide by gun than die from homicide or accidental gun death.

No, I think, (although I don't know, because I'm not pro gun, I'm pro gun-control and pro-gun safety), that most people who wish to keep their options to gun purchase and ownership so UN-restricted feel that way because their personality is mistrustful of others having any significant control over the gun-owners' personal lifestyle and thinking. I don't know for sure, but that is what I have come to think is at the root of all this opposition to gun control we see here in the USA. It's a cultural uniqueness that is very American, not the same in Canada, or England, where I have spent some time. Of course, the NRA both incubates and fans the flames of those kinds of passions, and the relatively high rate of homicides in the USA, compared to other nations serves to reinforce those personal fears and desires to own guns. The desire to control one's means of death might be some, but not a major factor in gun owner's motivations, but, again, how would I ever really know?