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Gun-Related Suicides Usually Outnumber Homicides, Accidents

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"The Supreme Court's ruling on gun ownership

focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from

intruders in their homes. Surprisingly often, gun

owners use the weapons on themselves, reports the

Associated Press. Suicides accounted for about 55

percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in

2005, the most recent year for which statistics are

available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention. Gun-related suicides have

outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20

of the past 25 years.

Public-health researchers have concluded that in

homes where guns are present, the likelihood that

someone in the home will die from suicide or

homicide is much greater. There has been a

significant decline in the past decade in public-health

research into gun violence. CDC was a primary funder

of research on guns and gun-related injuries,

allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such

projects in the mid-1990s. The agency cut back

research after Congress in 1996 ordered that none of

the CDC's appropriations be used to promote gun

control."

Associated Press/Denver Post - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001gt1d6KANc0daPRF61sDP8OWe03b9tbxlcKnu9sEwJLqPfTr0XC9lUNRAm8QIPeP19mbFBMlhb5WhyNwyJVABZvnBffsYreETnMMUwFdOVdBTElEnQdQbfkvp6NlRrmIhjNPv2m6sYXNj27BejOnKsA==

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 01, 2008 (boomark / email).