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Sunday, October 18th, 2020

Gun suicide is overwhelming US rural districts in west and south, report says

Author:     Alexandra Villarreal
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Tue 6 Oct 2020 06.00 EDT
 Link: Gun suicide is overwhelming US rural districts in west and south, report says
Stephan:   Where there are guns in the hands of the depressed and mentally ill there will inevitably be violence and death. How could it be otherwise since the purpose of guns is death? And this is what the American gun psychosis has produced. No other developed nation in the world suffers in this way.
‘Nationally, nearly half of suicides involve a firearm. But this congressional district research shows that the national average masks enormous differences between districts,’ Everytown report explains. Credit: Bloomberg/Getty

Almost 23,000 people die annually by gun suicide in the United States, tragedies that are overwhelming some rural congressional districts clustered in the nation’s west and south, according to new research from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.

A dearth of mental health resources, shifting economic realities and widespread gun ownership factor in the devastating and disproportionate local death tolls around the country.

“Nationally, nearly half of suicides involve a firearm. But this congressional district research shows that the national average masks enormous differences between districts,” the Everytown report explains.

Meanwhile, experts fear as many as 7,000 additional lives could be lost to gun suicide during 2020 alone as Americans eye new firearm purchases amid a deeply felt economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a toxic combination,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of research at the Everytown Support Fund.

For months, more than a third of American adults have experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, and phones at crisis […]

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