LGBTQ+ youth with firearms in their homes are more likely to consider suicide

wreckedcarzz , 18 days ago

Can confirm (for many, many years… actually still continuing but I’m better than I was years ago) - however with a half-decent, supportive family, and safety precautions, firearms can be a great tool to grow up around, to learn about from family members who are knowledgeable, and later protect yourself too.

Now mine weren’t supportive and didn’t do much to educate me, so this is theoretical from my pov, but they did do a good job at securing them, and explaining why; I maybe-likely would not be here otherwise. Today I own a 9mm pistol for self-defense, bought after the pulse shooting, and have taken it to nearby ranges a few times. Need to go more often, keep in practice…

But yeah. Given shitty parents + shitty safety measures (and/or shitty teachers and faculty that put additional burden on a young individual; fuck you to hell and back, [redacted] Elementary School and [redacted] High School, and all your shitty staff that didn’t give a fuck about the abuse I took), firearms can be a terrible thing to have. The source of the problem (as far as this article is concerned) is the shitty parents/school/support network, that causes unnecessary suffering; but unsupervised children/teens getting their hands on a weapon for any reason can be deadly, even out of curiosity. Safety is just as important!

Just don’t be a shitty parent, mmmk? It’s really not that hard. And lock your shit up when not in use.

FlyingSquid , 18 days ago

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a pretty good parent. It doesn’t matter if the school doesn’t cooperate. We’ve had to go down to a single income so I can be my daughter’s “learning coach” in the (public) online school we’ve put her in because she was severely bullied and the school would do nothing. She was having a lot of feelings about self-harm and she’s only 13. Yes, she’s queer. We are 100% supportive of her in anything she wants to do in terms of love or sex as long as no one is hurt. It’s not enough.

I’m just glad there’s no gun in the house.

verdantbanana , 18 days ago

sure the same can be said with homes containing razor blades

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks , 18 days ago

Nope, CDC says 50% of suicides are done with a firearm.

trxxruraxvr , 18 days ago

Only in the US, where everyone and their mother has a firearm

FlyingSquid , 18 days ago

Do you think there might be a connection between fact that the U.S. has a higher per capita suicide rates than most of the countries with illegal firearms and legal firearms?

en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r…

trxxruraxvr , 18 days ago

I think that in other countries with lots of firearms, they might still be less accessible to people with mental health issues. Especially in contrast to the accessibility of affordable mental health care.

FlyingSquid , 18 days ago

So you’re really saying that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever to the U.S. having a higher suicide rate than every country with illegal firearms and legal firearms? Really?

Because none of the countries on that list with higher suicide rates than the U.S. have illegal guns and all the ones with illegal guns are lower than that. And you really can’t see a connection there?

trxxruraxvr , 18 days ago

If you think that’s what I’m saying you need to work on your reading comprehension. Suicide rates depend on accessibility of easy suicide methods. Firearms are one of the easiest method and them being legal means they’re relatively easily accessible. So yes there is a link to the legality of firearms.

none of the countries on that list with higher suicide rates than the U.S. have illegal guns

That’s just bullshit. Illegal firearms are everywhere. There are no countries on this planet without organized crime.

FlyingSquid , 18 days ago

Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. None of the countries on that list with suicide rates higher than the U.S. had any sort of gun ban. The ones below it all have gun bans. Gun bans clearly reduce suicide.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks , 18 days ago

Suicide rates depend on accessibility of easy suicide methods.

Illegal firearms are everywhere.

Lol, tell us more about how having to find a source of firearms willing to believe you’re not a plant, while depressed or otherwise mentally unstable, while having the cash in amounts that black markets require constitutes as easily accessible. No, really, please type up a narrative that involves those things, the whole process from deciding to end things to finding a source to pulling the trigger. Does it take more than 5 minutes? If so, a bunch of people get past their crisis. Any delay saves people. Any inconvenience saves people. Not sure why you think you understand better than the experts as that looks about as smart as antivax and raw milkers these days.

Samvega , 18 days ago

I have experienced serious suicidal ideation in my life. Standing at the bathroom mirror with a knife to my skin still needed a very difficult step, no matter how much I thought I wanted to do it. With a gun, I would very likely have applied the pressure to injure myself, or worse.

Sharp metal does not explode into you the same way as a bullet does, and it does not move that fast with as little effort.

ctag , 18 days ago

The book “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell does an excellent job of explaining how access to convenient means of suicide increase rates, which contradicts the common argument that suicidal people will find other means to die if guns are less accessible. It turns out suicidal behavior is often situation and time specific, and removing tools for self harm means better chances of improvement.