I am waiting for Earl and others to make an "intelligent" comment
about gun-control.
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By MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA (AP) -- The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun owner****p
last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from
intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often,
gun owners use the weapons on themselves.
Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000
firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are
available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was nothing unique about that year _ gun-related suicides have
outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25
years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths.
Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included
legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that
involve undetermined intent.
Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are
present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide
or homicide is much greater.
Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were
three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households
that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other
risk factors.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court on Thursday struck down a handgun
ban enacted in the District of Columbia in 1976 and rejected
requirements that firearms have trigger locks or be kept disassembled.
The ruling left intact the district's licensing restrictions for gun
owners.
One public-health study found that suicide and homicide rates in the
district dropped after the ban was adopted. The district has allowed
shotguns and rifles to be kept in homes if they are registered, kept
unloaded and taken apart or equipped with trigger locks.
The American Public Health Association, the American Association of
Suicidology and two other groups filed a legal brief sup****ting the
district's ban. The brief challenged arguments that if a gun is not
available, suicidal people will just kill themselves using other
means.
More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful,
while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent.
The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said,
citing studies.
"Other methods are not as lethal," said Jon Vernick, co-director of
the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
The high court's majority opinion made no mention of suicide. But in a
dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer used the word 14 times in
voicing concern about the impact of striking down the handgun ban.
"If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-
defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit
suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence," Breyer wrote.
Researchers in other fields have raised questions about the public-
health findings on guns.
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of
Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1
million incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an
actual or threatened criminal attack.
Public-health experts have said the telephone survey methodology Kleck
used likely resulted in an overestimate.
Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last
decade in public-health research into gun violence.
The CDC traditionally was a primary funder of research on guns and gun-
related injuries, allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such
projects in the mid-1990s.
But the agency cut back research on the subject after Congress in 1996
ordered that none of the CDC's appropriations be used to promote gun
control.
Vernick said the Supreme Court decision underscores the need for
further study into what will happen to suicide and homicide rates in
the district when the handgun ban is lifted.
Today, the CDC budgets less than $900,000 for firearm-related
projects, and most of it is spent to track statistics. The agency no
longer funds gun-related policy analysis
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