82 shot, 14 fatalities, over the 4th of July weekend

[*Nately120*]

(07-08-2015, 12:26 PM)fredtoast Wrote: But just to show how fair and balanced I am i will point out that a large number of "gun deaths" are suicides that would have probably occurred even if there was no gun.

Actually:

according to The New England Journal of Medicine. 24% of those who made near-lethal suicide attempts decided to kill themselves less than five minutes before the attempt, and 70% made the decision within an hour of the attempt.
Impulse plays a much larger role in suicide rates than people think.  The notion that someone who wants to kill himself with a gun would seamlessly replace it with another measure isn’t entirely correct.  Methinks guns and suicide are a lot like guns and homicide:  it can occur without one, but having one makes it a lot easier.
 
Guns and Suicide in the United States
Matthew Miller, M.D., Sc.D., and David Hemenway, Ph.D.
N Engl J Med 2008; 359:989-991September 4, 2008DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp0805923
 
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923