Roughly two-thirds of all so-called gun deaths are suicides. That means that if we can find a way to end the problem of people taking their own lives, "gun deaths" becomes a much, much lower statistic.
The problem is that suicide isn't a gun issue. It's a mental health one, and anti-gun Democrats routinely prove they're too stupid to understand that.
The latest example, which isn't a particularly new proposal, comes out of Ohio, where they're pushing a bill that would allow people to make it so they'll be denied should they try to buy a gun.
t’s no secret that owning firearms increases the risk of suicide, and lawmakers are now proposing a measure to tackle that issue head-on.
During the last meeting of the Ohio Senate Armed Services, Veterans Affairs & Public Safety Committee on Feb. 11, Democratic senators Hearcel F. Craig and Paula Hicks Hudson provided sponsor testimonies for Senate Bill 236 to stress the urgency surrounding gun deaths in Ohio. Also known as the Suicide Self-Defense Act, it would create a voluntary system allowing individuals to temporarily place themselves on a confidential “do not possess firearms registry.”
Craig framed the bill as a public safety measure rooted in personal choice, characterizing it as a “commonsense suicide prevention measure that gives Ohioans a responsible way to protect themselves during moments of elevated risk.”
SB 236 would create space for people to use their own discretion in deciding whether they are a threat to themselves or those around them. Enrollment in the registry would temporarily prohibit them from purchasing, possessing or transferring firearms. The legislation is set up such that enrollment and removal would be initiated solely by the individual, with records shielded from public disclosure and permanently destroyed once participants exit the program.
Craig cited a body of research linking firearms to suicide risk, pointing out that having access to a gun significantly increases a person’s risk of death by their own hand.
That "body of research," however, is from an entire legion of researchers that can't seem to find a single positive outcome for gun ownership, ever. This is statistically impossible, which means that they're either cooking the books on their research--which they are, it should be noted--or are suppressing pro-gun findings.
So, let's keep that in mind.
However, the big kicker here--other than Cleveland.com thinking that the whole thing of using suicides to justify gun control is "widely ignored," that is--would be how absolutely stupid this entire proposal actually is.
"You can declare yourself as someone who can't possess guns!"
Sure, and you can just not buy guns.
If you're serious about taking your own life, you're also likely inclined to either not put yourself on such a list, or remove it at whatever point you feel like ending it. This actually does nothing at all to stop suicides by firearm, much less suicides as a whole.
It should be remembered that while suicides account for about two-thirds of all so-called gun deaths, those same cases are just a smidge over half of all suicides. In other words, nearly half of all suicides manage to take their own life with something other than a gun. Had the other half not had firearms, most of them would likely have still taken their own lives, just with something different.
In the gun debate, that might make the numbers look better for the pro-gun side, but the problem would remain.
And nothing in this bill comes close to addressing that problem.
Instead, it's really just theater put on to make it look like they're addressing an issue, while really its just giving them more of a chance to blame guns for all of society's problems.
It's an idea so absolutely stupid that only the Democrats could have come up with it.