Democratic presidential candidates at the debate Thursday made a big show about how tough they wanted to get on guns. Beto O’Rourke said he would confiscate thousands of them. Yet not a single one of them admitted the truth about real gun “violence.”
The bulk of the violence that involves a gun is suicide.
The New York Times reported on it in 2018, “More people died from firearm injuries in the United States last year than in any other year since at least 1968, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The crucial point is this (emphasis added): “There were 39,773 gun deaths in 2017, up by more than 1,000 from the year before. Nearly two-thirds were suicides. It was the largest yearly total on record in the C.D.C.’s electronic database, which goes back 50 years, and reflects the sheer number of lives lost.”
Would suicides go down if we took away all guns? Maybe some, or maybe the vast majority will find another way to kill themselves.
Democrats never talk about suicide, though. Because they say guns, not “mental health” are the problem. Numbers say otherwise.
