Suicide rates in the US are highest among elderly men, and most involve guns, CDC report says | CNN
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The suicide rate in the United States spiked in 2021, reversing two years of decline, and rates among older men were especially high, a new report says.

Senior men have higher rates of suicide than average, and firearms were involved in more than three-quarters of those deaths in 2021, according to a CDC report

  • SheeEttin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    66·
    1 year ago

    They do, but they are not the root cause, and focusing on them is a distraction.

    • DancingYetiCrab@lemm.ee
      34·
      1 year ago

      It’s not a distraction though.

      The vast majority of attempted suicide survivors regret ever trying. They get help and live better lives.

      When someone is in a bad state of mind or having a depressed episode that is the time when they are most vulnerable.

      Having easy access to an immediate life ending device with the squeeze of a trigger is a major problem.

      This is the reason jump nets and barriers work on bridges. Making it slightly harder or more inconvenient to kill themselves saves lives.

    • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
      23·
      1 year ago

      Its not a distraction – it’s an immediate, measurable solution to a growing problem, that absolutely nobody is suggesting is the entire solution.

      Meanwhile, what have the pro-gun groups that insist they (and they alone) have the solution suggested?

      Video games. Marilyn Manson. Rock and rap music. Not enough prayer. Too many doors. Abortion. Legalised weed. Women. Drag Queens and gay marriage. COVID vaccines. Critical race theory. Not enough people having guns.

      And what a surprise, every single one of those excuses is just blatantly something they want to attack anyway, using the “look what you made me do” excuse loved by manipulative abusers everywhere.

      The boomers blame popular culture. The fundamentalists blame secularism and abortion. The fascists blame minorities. The neoliberals blame their donors not making enough money.

      After 25 years of offering nothing by distractions, some marketing genius thought of “mental health”, which is at least part of the problem.

      But of course their take away isnt “clearly we are not mentally healthy enough as a society for such permissive gun laws”, nor even “we should do something about the mental health problems are facing”.

      Instead, it’s “Other people should build a mental health system that is mandatory for every man, woman and child in America, even if they don’t want help. It has to cure mental health problems, even those beyond our ability to treat, instantly and so completely that they will never relapse, even for a second. Also, we are going to obstruct your efforts every step of the way politically, legally and by telling children they’re less important that inanimate objects used to kill and oppress people”.

      Because the idea was never to fix the problem, the idea was to create something that would distract people for 200 years, so the money would keep rolling in.

      But don’t worry if the skepticism has already started to creep into your brain with intrusive thoughts like “does this mean we train soldiers to be mentally ill?” or “are they trying to say that being a right wing reactionary like most mass shooters (and gun owners) is actually a mental illness?”…

      MTG has already come out and blamed mass shootings on the medication we use to treat mental health problems, ensuring gun owners still have the backup distraction of “too much mental healthcare”, ready to be used the day people meet their impossible prerequisites for gun control.