TFLYTSNBN wrote:Do not forget that in spite of the proliferation of guns, the US has one of the lowest suicide rates in the industrialized world.
I was curious to see how much bullshit that statement is, so I looked up
some data.
Turns out, it's bullshit. The US has a suicide rate of around 13.8 suicides per 100k people, placing it at the high end of the first world countries behind Belgium, Japan and Korea (as well as a smattering of second- and third world countries). Most other major european countries have slightly to moderately lower rates; The US has, in fact, one of the
highest suicide rates of the industrialized world.
Interesting aside: Did you know that about half of all suicides in the US are done using guns? While nothing is going to stop someone completely comitted to that path from killing themselves, I do wonder how many of those suicides could be prevented if it wasn't so easy to acquire tools designed with the express purpose of killing things quickly and easily.