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About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever, according to new government data posted Thursday. Available data suggests suicides are more common in the U.S. than at any time since records were kept at the end of World War II.
Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and recent increases can be driven by a range of factors, including higher rates of depression and limited access to mental health services. But a main driver is the growing availability of guns, said Jill Harkavy-Friedman, senior vice president of research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Suicide attempts involving guns end in death far more often than those with other means, and gun sales have boomed — placing firearms in more and more homes.
The largest increases were seen in older adults. Deaths rose nearly 7% in people ages 45 to 64, and more than 8% in people 65 and older. Suicides in adults ages 25 to 44 grew about 1%. The new data indicates that suicide became the second leading cause of death in that age group in 2022, up from No. 4 in 2021.
Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and recent increases can be driven by a range of factors, including higher rates of depression and limited access to mental health services. But a main driver is the growing availability of guns, said Jill Harkavy-Friedman, senior vice president of research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Suicide attempts involving guns end in death far more often than those with other means, and gun sales have boomed — placing firearms in more and more homes.
The largest increases were seen in older adults. Deaths rose nearly 7% in people ages 45 to 64, and more than 8% in people 65 and older. Suicides in adults ages 25 to 44 grew about 1%. The new data indicates that suicide became the second leading cause of death in that age group in 2022, up from No. 4 in 2021.
US suicides hit an all-time high last year
Posted from apnews.com
Suicide
Mental Health
Government Funding
Statistics
Edited 9 mo ago
Posted 9 mo ago
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I suggest that the “government” really does not care about a population decrease.
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Amn Dale Preisach
Less persons to have to feed, protect against, easier if population and Military are in a small ratio ... less people to worry on having protests vs the deletion of the constitution Listed Rights.
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It is terrible the left tries to make guns the cause of suicides and doesn’t talk about parents being absent, drugs, society pushing transgender issues down their throats that have been proven to cause suicidal thoughts, and do much more. People need to start speaking about the real issues tearing our children and society apart.
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CW3 Chuck Eastman
Maj Robert Thornton , I completely agree. And I would add, that not all mental health crisis needs 911 to be called. Oftentimes, LEOs showing up with lights on and guns drawn don't help anything at all. If we could fix what you mentioned, as well has overhaul our response and understanding of suicidality with a gentler approach (mobile crisis teams, trained mental health providers, etc.), I think we cold make some headway in this challenge.
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SFC (Join to see)
CW3 Chuck Eastman - While I respect and recognize good work you do, I don’t respect this article at all.
Suicide is a very complex issue. I have personal experience with depression, homelessness, and drug/alcohol addiction, and unfortunately suicide also and can tell you these first 4 items, in no particular order, along with feelings of helplessness and entitlement are the main causes of suicide in our nation. Even when a person has a loving helpful family sometimes it is not enough. How do you help a person who would rather lay down and die in a gutter than stand up and support themselves? That is the million dollar question here.
For our conversation here the first thing we need to differentiate is civilian suicidal thoughts from our brothers and sisters who are battling the trauma of being in combat or the crisis of conscience, PTSD if we are looking for a name. There are different causes for suicidal thoughts that need to be treated differently in my opinion.
Your statement sounds good and is interesting: “I personally believe that the "right" can make such an impact by having reasonable conversations about how we can save lives, but at the same time have all our 2A rights without question.” You insinuate that lives can be saved by putting restrictions (conversations about how we can save lives) on access to guns without saying how to do it. I don’t believe we can have it both ways even though it sounds good. The court can currently take away a person’s gun rights “for cause” on a case-by-case basis. In my opinion this is the only way we can take guns away from people is for cause on a case-by-case basis; to do otherwise infringes on people’s rights.
I believe you are falling into the trap of taking the easy way out, that is blaming the mechanism, in this case guns, for suicides rather than the underlying causes. Socialist and Communist leaning people and organizations make the argument they will foolproof life if we give away all our rights, this is very appealing to weak minded people who don’t want any responsibility and to be taken care of. The history of the world shows us there is no way to foolproof life, and other people will take advantage of these weak minded people to gain power and wealth for themselves.
Now we are prepared to discuss this article.
When I see an article like this rightly say: “suicide is a very complex issue” and then dive headfirst into “a main driver is the growing availability of guns” then drones on about how guns are so easy to get, and all the other “stuff” the author, Mr. Stobbe, attempts to connect to gun deaths… well I can see Stobbe’s intention is to do a hit piece on guns. If the author was being honest, he would be exploring how we can identify people susceptible to suicide and legally keep them away from items that can harm them: guns, drugs, ect. Instead, the author just keeps going on about guns in the house, that’s how one can see this is a hit piece.
I’m a numbers guy myself and always say the numbers need to be evaluated in the correct context for a true solution to be found. I’ve seen so many skewed evaluations where the premise of a problem to be solved has data omitted or quasi facts inserted to steer the evaluation to a desired outcome. In the case here, just looking at gun suicides is the fault in the logic of the argument. I notice you didn’t mention drug deaths/suicides, possibly because it is nearly impossible to discern one from the other. How can we identify if a death was an overdose or a suicide? I don’t believe we can, yet I believe the number is so great it would significantly affect all the percentages you quote.
At the end of the day, after all this discussion, we are no closer to a solution for suicides than when we began. Myself I believe it is a crisis of faith that affected generations of our society being taught bad morals: responsibility is to be avoided, if it feels good do it, there is no God, there is no right and wrong, life should be perfect and everyone should have the same life outcome regardless of if they worked for it or not, it doesn’t matter if you have a husband or wife, ect. These are the bad characteristics that have now been taught to generations, that make it easy for a person to pull the trigger or jab that needle into their body or rob and kill their fellow citizens.
As long as we are teaching our young all the bad morals I mentioned above, there are no solutions for suicides. MHO
Suicide is a very complex issue. I have personal experience with depression, homelessness, and drug/alcohol addiction, and unfortunately suicide also and can tell you these first 4 items, in no particular order, along with feelings of helplessness and entitlement are the main causes of suicide in our nation. Even when a person has a loving helpful family sometimes it is not enough. How do you help a person who would rather lay down and die in a gutter than stand up and support themselves? That is the million dollar question here.
For our conversation here the first thing we need to differentiate is civilian suicidal thoughts from our brothers and sisters who are battling the trauma of being in combat or the crisis of conscience, PTSD if we are looking for a name. There are different causes for suicidal thoughts that need to be treated differently in my opinion.
Your statement sounds good and is interesting: “I personally believe that the "right" can make such an impact by having reasonable conversations about how we can save lives, but at the same time have all our 2A rights without question.” You insinuate that lives can be saved by putting restrictions (conversations about how we can save lives) on access to guns without saying how to do it. I don’t believe we can have it both ways even though it sounds good. The court can currently take away a person’s gun rights “for cause” on a case-by-case basis. In my opinion this is the only way we can take guns away from people is for cause on a case-by-case basis; to do otherwise infringes on people’s rights.
I believe you are falling into the trap of taking the easy way out, that is blaming the mechanism, in this case guns, for suicides rather than the underlying causes. Socialist and Communist leaning people and organizations make the argument they will foolproof life if we give away all our rights, this is very appealing to weak minded people who don’t want any responsibility and to be taken care of. The history of the world shows us there is no way to foolproof life, and other people will take advantage of these weak minded people to gain power and wealth for themselves.
Now we are prepared to discuss this article.
When I see an article like this rightly say: “suicide is a very complex issue” and then dive headfirst into “a main driver is the growing availability of guns” then drones on about how guns are so easy to get, and all the other “stuff” the author, Mr. Stobbe, attempts to connect to gun deaths… well I can see Stobbe’s intention is to do a hit piece on guns. If the author was being honest, he would be exploring how we can identify people susceptible to suicide and legally keep them away from items that can harm them: guns, drugs, ect. Instead, the author just keeps going on about guns in the house, that’s how one can see this is a hit piece.
I’m a numbers guy myself and always say the numbers need to be evaluated in the correct context for a true solution to be found. I’ve seen so many skewed evaluations where the premise of a problem to be solved has data omitted or quasi facts inserted to steer the evaluation to a desired outcome. In the case here, just looking at gun suicides is the fault in the logic of the argument. I notice you didn’t mention drug deaths/suicides, possibly because it is nearly impossible to discern one from the other. How can we identify if a death was an overdose or a suicide? I don’t believe we can, yet I believe the number is so great it would significantly affect all the percentages you quote.
At the end of the day, after all this discussion, we are no closer to a solution for suicides than when we began. Myself I believe it is a crisis of faith that affected generations of our society being taught bad morals: responsibility is to be avoided, if it feels good do it, there is no God, there is no right and wrong, life should be perfect and everyone should have the same life outcome regardless of if they worked for it or not, it doesn’t matter if you have a husband or wife, ect. These are the bad characteristics that have now been taught to generations, that make it easy for a person to pull the trigger or jab that needle into their body or rob and kill their fellow citizens.
As long as we are teaching our young all the bad morals I mentioned above, there are no solutions for suicides. MHO
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SFC (Join to see)
Maj Robert Thornton - You hit the nail on the head. Speaking for Pennsylvania over the last +20 years our politicians have systematically closed most of our institutions arguing that all these mentally ill people could receive just as good care on an outpatient basis. Anyone that was being honest knew they were lying. I suspect they did this so they could use the dedicated funding in other areas they wanted to, rent rebates for the elderly come to mind and other areas like this. Now this may sound like a noble cause but when we realize Pennsylvania has more elderly apartments than one can shake a stick at that accept a part of a person’s income as rent, well them we know the politicians are just doing what they do best, buying votes.
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CW3 Chuck Eastman
SFC (Join to see) - , you're absolutely correct sir, and I apologize if I was over simplifying suicide. It's incredibly complex!! There are so many factors that go into it, it's impossible to distill it all here. But I do appreciate and honor your thoughts and well laid out points. And you're right...the data surrounding suicide is crap...I was only trying to provide data from research that has been conducted. The actual number / stats though, are probably much more sobering. I really appreciate you weighing in on this difficult topic. Voices like yours are so crucial to get a better understanding! Thank you.
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When you fill the minds of already trouble people with crap like climate change, the trans world, covid nonsense, racist propaganda, political lies and controversy, illegal aliens costing us billions, what did you expect them to do?
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