You can't prevent suicides. If you foil the person one way they simply find another. My ex-wife took her life, using one of my guns, when I was away from home. She was 43 years old. Before I knew her, she had tried to commit suicide with pills. She did leave a note blaming her mother and me for all her problems. She was clinically depressed, but refused all medical treatment. Her mother and I were the only two people who tried to help her, to whom she might accept some aid. She was oriented enough in space and time, and denied she was a threat to her own safety or the safety of others- the standard used for involuntary commitments to mental hospitals- so that we could not commit her. She was a lawyer who represented indigent mental patients, and knew better than I did what a person had to say to doctors, and to a judge to avoid being committed. She argued that Suicide was the ultimate "civil right" of all free people.
I was consoled by a man whose wife hanged herself in the garage when he took their 2 children to the local Dairy Queen for Ice Cream after dinner. No warning, no fight, no note. They found her body when they activated the Garage door opener less than 15 minutes after leaving home. He had guns in the house. She chose to hang herself.
Millions of home have loaded guns around them, and kids have grown up knowing not to touch them, without adult supervision. My friend's 2 1/2 year old brother showed us what he had been taught about firearms safety, getting guns out of the closet, and showing he knew how to open them and check them to see that they were unloaded. Yes, it took a lot of effort by Bud and his parents and brother and sister to train Mike to know this all at that age, but he was safer than many adults I have supervised at classes where we taught them to use firearms for self defense.
AND, we simply are not going to reach everyone. Often when you hear these stories, you don't get the real significant details about the family. The news wants the Sensational stuff. Lots of guns Is Sensational news to the reporter, who grows up without any guns in the home, no training in either shooting or firearms safety, and has no clue how people who do own firearms train their children to be safe around guns. Some will even argue that YOU CAN'T train kids to be safe around guns, and that really separates the NON-shooters, from we shooters.
The Few accidental shootings of children by other children almost always involved homes with little adult supervision and training of the children, are tragic, but the result of other factors in the home.
There is a greater likelihood that the adults in the home are engaged in illegal activities, and the loaded guns they have are there to protect themselves from raids from rival criminals. These are not the "law-abiding" people who buy their guns at gun stores, obey waiting periods, nor obtain firearms training on how to be safe with guns in the home. Too many cops- and retired cops involved, and they don't want to let the cops know they have a gun. ( It may even be illegal for one or both parents to own a gun, based on criminal histories.)
Accidents can happen to anyone, of any age. Being a parent is a 24/7 job, and my highest respect goes out to people who try do their best, even when failure appears. We don't teach people how to be great parents, for the most part. Its OTJ training, at best. We have half a dozen children under the age of 5 or 6, accidentally killed- usually by other children, with guns, in this country, annually, according to statistics. John Lott has written and lectured on this very topic often. Considering the number of homes with guns( where people admit to owning at least one gun) is about 85 million, these tragedies are thankfully very low. They are a much lower percentage of accidental shooting deaths since 1934, when the NRA first began offering Firearm and Hunter Safety training courses. The increase in the number of guns owned does not create a higher number of accidental shootings. I began teaching Hunter Safety back in 1982, and I have seen the number and rate of firearms hunting accidents steadily drop in my State( Illinois) since I began teaching. In fact, hunting accidents involving firearms have dropped so low, that the DNR now has a part A and Part B section, to include non-firearm related accidents involving hunters.
This other category mostly includes falls from trees and tree stands that result in injuries sufficiently serious that the party has to seek medical assistance. Its the reports from the medical providers to State officials that generate this category. However, even padding the Accident reports with these incidents, we still have only about 20 accidental injuries or deaths in a state that sells more than 300,000 permits and licenses. :hmm: :idunno: :surrender: :thumbsup:
:hmm:
