Talk of the Nation did a show on
guns last week. A lot of it was from a public health perspective. Interesting factoid 60% of gun deaths are suicides. I found this
page from the AFSP.
Firearms and Suicide
Although most gun owners reportedly keep a firearm in their home for "protection" or "self defense," 83 percent of gun-related deaths in these homes are the result of a suicide, often by someone other than the gun owner.
Firearms are used in more suicides than homicides.
Death by firearms is the fastest growing method of suicide.
Firearms account for 50 percent of all suicides.
I guess to me an interesting stat would be home invasions thwarted, although I couldn't guess what percentage of those are reported.
I see two competing narratives here which make us all less safe. The left demonizes guns to the point where people are prevented from being exposed to a culture of safe handling of firearms, while the right pretends that gun owners are by and large well trained at handling firearms. I'd like to see some thought go into reducing that suicide number.