Picture it: Angers, France, July 4, 2017. I've traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to talk to an international (but mostly European) audience about guns in America. As my presentation wore on, their expressions became more and more distorted, twisting into grimaces of disbelief and confusion. It was both patriotic and deeply embarrassing. The CDC, NIH, and other government research agencies are prohibited from examining gun violence by the 1996 Dickey Amendment. However, they do make firearm mortality data available through the CDC mortality files . Any epidemiology on guns must be performed by private citizens. So, here we are. The original presentation covered both homicide and suicide. I'm happy to talk about homicide at a different time, but today let's just look at the suicide side of things. Half of completed suicides are gun suicides. The rest mostly die by suffocation or poison. Cutting, though romantic, is rarely an effective way to complete suici...
Suicide is not incomprehensible, inevitable, or evil. I have struggled with severe mental illness and suicidal ideation for decades. I, and most people in my situation, have been groping blindly though the darkness in shame and fear. Not any more. It's time we look directly into the void, together.