Firearm suicides reached "unprecedented" high in 2022, CDC data shows

We need more good suicidal guys with guns to stop bad suicidal guys with guns.

Another example of:

A gun is way more likely to be used on a member of your household than in defence of that household.

Owning Guns Puts People in Your Home at Greater Risk of Being Killed, New Study Shows

The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership

People in homes with handguns more likely to be shot dead, major study finds

I got downvoted real bad when I pointed this out to someone who said "making guns illegal just takes them away from people who need to defend themselves."
The defense excuse of gun ownership is a myth. It causes way more harm than good.
- That aside: the easier it is for good guys to get a gun, the easier it is for bad guys too.
  And: where does that idea of a good guy stopping a bad guy come from even? If the bad guy is the better shoot, he still wins the fight. If he catches the good guy by surprise (which is likely given that bad acts are an action and not a reaction), he also has the upper hand.
  So more guns solves exactly nothing, it only increases risks everywhere.
That makes sense because of mishandling, mismanagement, and.. Wanting to die sometimes...
Most flight incidents happen on departure and arrival so of course most gun mishaps happen at home.
Guess what I'm saying is it all makes sense one way or the other.
Sadly. Gun nuts don't want to hear any of this. The U.S. gun culture is truly obscene.

Legalize doctor assisted suicide. Let people end their lives with dignity.

Yeah but I'm not so sure we should be allowing people to make that choice on a whim because they're depressed or feeling down at the time. Humans are wildly impulsive sometimes.
- They're not drive thru places. Typically you have to go thru counseling and thru evaluations to make sure it's what you want. But right now people are just buying guns to blow their heads off and leaving their body for first responders or their family to find. People are always going to kill themselves, you might as well make it a clean and dignified end.
- They're already allowed....
Bruh I'd vote for this
Who would use it when they have pro-gun assisted suicide?
For doctor-assisted suicide, you need to be over 18 anywhere it's available.
But for pro-gun suicide, children only need a "responsible gun owner" in the house with a poorly secured firearm, thanks to their staunch opposition of safe storage laws and need to be 3 second from a gun at all times.
For doctor-assisted suicide, you generally need to be terminally ill first and undergo a psychological evaluation to ensure you're mentally capable of making an informed decision.
But for pro-gun suicide, you can kill yourself without even the most token effort to cure your mental health problems, thanks to their staunch opposition to red flag laws. Their only requirement is "not a felon" and they even ensure you can get around it with a private sale loophole.
For doctor-assisted suicide, you usually need the approval of two doctors, both of which have years of medical school to pay off and neither of which your sleazy insurance company will want to pay for.
But for pro-gun suicide, a cheap handgun can be yours for under $200, because that's what someones life is worth to them.
For doctor-assisted suicide, you will usually have a minimum waiting period between your first and second requests, to ensure you're not making an impulsive decision.
But for pro-gun suicide, you can do it on a whim. Even if you haven't surrounded yourself with super cool guns already, the waiting period is typically only a few days and if you're lucky enough to live in a pro-gun state, there might be no minimum waiting period at all.
For doctor-assisted suicide, the medication is very deliberately dispensed to ensure there is no danger to anybody else.
But for pro-gun suicide, take all the people you want with you when you go. Family members, a room full of terrified children, a bunch of minorities some Discord channel insisted were the reason your life sucks -- the pro-gun community don't even pretend to care, let alone do something about it.
Ultimately, doctors just can't compete with the cheap, accessible, fast and poorly considered suicides offered by American gun laws. Why else do you think they've skyrocketed?
Because it's definitely not because terminally ill people are deciding to end their life without the dignity of keeping their brains inside their skull -- an idea that is so thoroughly stupid that I'm having a hard time believing your intention is anything more than simply making the statistics around firearms look better.

"Means Matter"

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/

Reducing access to more lethal means of suicide reduces deaths by suicide in a population. The data on this is unequivocal.

That's because the majority of suicidal crises are spontaneous and of absurdly short duration, on the order of around 20 minutes. If you interrupt the process between decision and action, people survive. And 90% of people who survive a suicide attempt never go on to die by suicide at any future point in their lives.

Late stage capitalism is alienating. Many people are faced with the reality that there’s little point to live when your only purpose is to be a wage slave for billionaires. There are no prospects of owning a home or being comfortable ever unless you’re born into wealth or willing to exploit others and put them into bad situations just so you can have a bit of comfort.

No, othering people is alienating. And this is by no means a partisan issue because almost everybody does it.
Democrats: "it's the Republicans' fault, they're evil"
Republicans: "it's the Democrats' fault, they're evil"
Communists: "it's rich people's fault, they're evil"
Capitalists: "it's poor people's fault, they're lazy"
Women: "it's men's fault, they're evil"
Men: "it's women's fault, they're evil"
The more you keep blaming other people for everything that's wrong with the world, the more you end up isolating yourself and retreating into your own bubble. You might think things would be better if you only spend with people who think like you and who validate your complaints and feelings, but in fact, that only serves to increase your alienation because it increases the gap between you and those "others".
- message of blaming other groups as problematic.
  Blames other people.
- It's been about a quarter century since I've spent meaningful time with a billionaire, and I'd wager that few here have been that close. What does alienating ourselves from the world's ~2,700 billionaires ,who already lock the world out and work to escape to other planets by explaining out why they're the problem cost us, exactly?
  Remember folks, don't criticise Nazis - you'll alienate yourself from them, and that's bad.
- -ism's
And if you get behind, there's the stigma among conservatives about getting a helping hand. Bootstraps and all that, it's sad.

A lot of people talking about means seem to be side stepping the fact that life is getting harder and that's probably why suicides are going up.

The means do matter, but the means aren't driving the wave we've seen this decade. Most suicides are finances and loneliness related. And even if someone does survive an attempt using another mean, the "help" is usually involuntary institutionalization which will make your life even worse. Even getting a driver's license is harder after that.

Not to discredit the means, I just think we need to take a hard look at everything surrounding said means. Society needs to fail someone 1,000 times before they pick up the final societal failure.

Social media is pretty poisonous for people, and has led to some extreme levels of alienation between people caught up in it and their close friends and family (which is the historical support network).
So people who see the world more like the strangers they have no practical connection with and obsess over the ways in which they see the world differently from those they actually have connections with leads to a very dark place.
There's a number of different factors going on, but I remember seeing private market research around two years ago at the striking divide even within households and realizing we were headed towards serious problems.
Everything is extremist, categorized by binary teams, and outrage driven.
That's not a recipe for a healthy social life, and not having a healthy social life or feeling apart from those in one's life can be devastating on mental health.
This post brought to you by a test drive of a proposed Texas "don't say gun" law.
- This is why I hate talking about guns online lmao. "oh you want to look at the big picture? You must be a republican gun fucker"
  Shut up

And if anyone wants to come in here screaming, “BAN all the things!”, just don’t.
vs
This is one of the most intractable problems in America, and I don’t have a clue what can be done about it.
The 2nd amendment needs to go on the dustbin of history. I'm not saying people can't own guns, but the right to should disappear.
"But that's not realistic", you might say. Sure, it's not going to happen any time soon but I think the US will get there eventually.
You're right, and you're going to get downvoted for it. We have an inequality problem masking as a gun problem. We have a mental health crisis masking as gun problem.
Possible solutions to these situations aren't fast and they don't stir up emotions enough to get people to vote for you. Riling people up and telling them you can fix their problems fast gets votes; saying we have work to do doesn't.
The stigma against mental healthcare won't be gone in my child's generation, but I am happy to see it is being accepted more than it was for mine. Of course, not thinking poorly of people for taking care of themselves doesn't matter if people can't afford to...
- We have an inequality problem masking as a gun problem. We have a mental health crisis masking as gun problem.
  Hard agree. People would not be killing themselves in droves if these issues weren't present.
  We have a shitload of guns in this country. Nothing is going to change that.
  While I think we do need more strict gun ownership laws, they're not going to change the amount already in people's hands. Nor will they make people less miserable.
  What we need are tangible improvements in people's lives. Improved wages. Lower housing costs. Affordable healthcare. Quality, free treatment for addiction.
  These are the things that will keep people from killing themselves.
Here's a thought: gun ownership is not a right and it was a mistake for that to have been put in the Constitution.
If for the sake of argument we determine that it is not a right, then we can make some actual change. We heavily restrict ownership, prosecute those who have them after a grace period, stop sales of ammo to citizens, heavily monitor borders and ports of entry for firearms, and demilitarize the police.
In addition, we invest in education, social programs, mental health, and improve wages, housing costs, and food costs for everyone.
Instead of all that, we're going to do nothing and send more money into the military.
Gun laws have always been, and always will be, racist.
Yes. Because they're all based on the original racist law, the Second Amendment.
https://truthout.org/articles/the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery/
I am in a similar situation with my guns. I have two antique long guns. They're locked up, in the crawl space, and I don't keep any ammo in my house.
I have depression and I don't trust myself not to use my guns to kill myself. For me, the inconvenience of accessing them and obtaining ammo feels like a safe compromise.
I agree that this is an enormous problem with no easy solutions.
And don’t start me with red flag laws, I know exactly how those would work out. Imagine vengeful exes, modern Brown Shirts, cops you pissed off, fuck me, even neighbors that are annoyed with you. While we’re at it, let’s just chunk the 4A right out the window.
Ya know you mostly had me up until here. Red flag laws - when your neighbor becomes despondent they should just leave the firearms around? When some kook starts waving his pistol around at the 7-11, you think they're keeping and bearing arms responsibly? I don't. Red Flag Laws are necessary.
https://jalopnik.com/stop-leaving-unsecured-guns-in-your-cars-1850268670
This nation needs to be responsible with the 440 MILLION firearms it's accumulated if they're going to keep them.
I don't think it's intractable I think it's unenforced and under-reported.
The second amendment had a very different meaning before Heller. Scalia went against his entire fucking schtick of "originalism" in that case to completely ignore historical precedence because it was convenient at the time. When nobody seemed to try to stop him, or really give a shit at all, he realized he didn't even need to pretend to be consistent.
And if anyone wants to come in here screaming, "BAN all the things!", just don't. The 2A exists and the courts uphold it as an individual right, those are facts and not open to argument.
Repeal and replace 2A.
The SCOTUS needs to revisit the issue. Heller was wrongly decided on the basis of shitacularly poor reasoning. There is no other solution. Unfortunately it's not going to happen any time soon. The plus side is that as Dobbs showed us, the court has no problem overturning long established precedent when it suits them.
I'm also not convinced that red flag laws can't work. They just have to be designed with a ton of safeguards in place. I think we should at least try them before deciding that they can't work. I believe there are already a handful of them in place at the state level, but I could be wrong as I don't follow the issue closely.

Those people just need a Good Guy With a Gun to kill them before they killed themselfs!

There's less and less reason to be alive. What the fuck is there to live for?

What are you talking about?! There’s so much more profit you can generate for the shareholders!!
But if you end it all now, think of all the debt you’re missing out on!!
Your brain evolved from monkeys.
Monkeys are perfectly happy doing a task for cucumbers as long as they don't see a monkey next to them get a grape for the same task, in which case they will throw the cucumber back at researchers in anger.
Monkeys evolved to be at ease in physical community and stressed when alone.
We've developed a number of things that feed short term reward pathways, but don't deliver long term fulfillment and satisfaction.
Honestly if you are feeling this upset about things, spend your days off detached from electronics giving you short term dopamine fixes, stop paying attention to what others do or don't have or experience, etc. And spend that time physically around other people, even if that means bringing lunch to picnic at a park.
Focus more on activities that provide longer term rewards for your monkey brain and less on addictive quick fixes & electronics.
The coming new year is a great time to set goals around this kind of change, and you'll see a major shift in mood as a result, even if nothing about the world itself changes beyond what aspects of the world you experience.
- To be precise, we share a common monkey-like ancestor with monkeys, we didn't evolve from them.
  I'll show myself out.