Alan: I recommend this program's "User Comments." They are unusually good. Consider: "As a long time gun owner I have no problem strengthening background checks (as the NRA once did), better mental health record keeping, keeping felons from accessing guns at gun shows etc. Will this prevent gun deaths? Nope, but it may lesson them. If more guns = safer citizens we would not rank in the top five nations in gun related deaths." Even the bad "user comments" are insightful by spotlighting the shoddy logic employed by most gung ho gun supporters. Consider: 'If a suicidal person doesn't have a gun, he'll just use some other method.' In fact, people are far more successful at killing themselves with guns... and much more likely to do so since "pulling a trigger" requires a fleet instant of decisiveness whereas most other methods consume considerably more time between "commencement and conclusion." People who fail to see the propriety of applying similar strictures to automobile licensure and firearm licensure seem incapable of rigorously analytical thought. Predictably, “global warming denial” and "evolution denial" are the other legs on which this barstool stands. Significantly, all three "postures" are based on absolute opposition. Significantly, the psychiatric pathology known as "Oppositional-Defiant Disorder" is usually an adolescent pathology and manifests in relationship to designated authorities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppositional_defiant_disorder
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In 2010, more than 30,000 Americans died from gunshot wounds, and about two-thirds were self-inflicted. More people used a firearm to take their own lives than every other method combined. For most, if not all victims, suicide reflects a treatment failure -- someone in distress who didn’t get the right kind of help when they most needed it. People determined to take their own lives can find a way, but research shows that having easy access to a gun boosts the likelihood that an attempt will be successful. Diane and guests discuss who is at risk for suicide, and what can be done to reduce that risk.
Guests
Dr. Matthew Miller
associate director at Harvard Injury Control Research Center and associate professor of health policy and injury prevention at Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Jana Martin
clinical psychologist and leader of public education efforts with the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Alan Newman
associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Lucinda Bassett
author of "Truth Be Told: A Memoir of Success, Suicide and Survival" to be published March 2013.
