Written by C.D. Michel

Looking down the wrong end of a telescope gives you an entirely mistaken perspective on the universe. The Los Angeles Daily News allowed Tim Rutten to publish an opinion piece (The dangerous illusion of Americans and their guns, May 30, 2014) that displayed just such an inverted perspective on the topic of the social utility of guns in American society.

Rutten correctly noted that nearly two thirds of all gun deaths are suicides. But Rutten’s political bias inverted the cause and effect perspective. Rutten claimed that “a Californian who purchases a gun is four times more likely to take his own life [with a gun] over the next year as someone who does not.” Nevermind that if you buy a gun to kill yourself you are probably going to use it to do just that. The reality is that suicidal people find a way, whether a gun is available or not. America and Canada share many cultural similarities and have nearly identical suicide rates, but suicidal Canadians – who own fewer guns than Yanks – choose to swallow poison instead. Lithuanians have less than 1% of the guns per capita than Americans do, but Lithuanians kill themselves three times as often, typically by hanging. So while some depressed people buy a gun as their specific choice of suicide method, for others the presence of a gun simply gives them a first choice. But the absence of a gun just makes them choose a different mode. Guns are not the cause of suicides. The trigger does not pull the finger.

Gun control laws... http://www.calgunlaws.com/the-social-utility-of-firearms/