Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

It's a Good Thing He Didn't Have a Gun!


(I need to make a category out of this one.)

Gun control organizations try their best to link "gun availability" to America's suicide rate. After all, over half the annual death toll attributed to firearms is suicide. The claim is that guns make suicide easy, and that people will grab an available gun at a moment of despair and end their lives when, if the gun were not there, they wouldn't attempt or more likely would survive the attempt (guns being so lethal and all.) I've covered this before. The US suicide rate is about middle-of-the pack for industrialized nations. Nations with high gun possession rates and suicide rates higher than ours have suicide methods other than guns. Nations with low gun possession rates and suicide rates higher than ours also have suicide methods other than guns.

From the evidence available, gun availability here affects the method, but not the rate. If someone really wants to end their life, they choose an effective method - whether it's a gun, jumping off a building, leaping in front of a train, poison, hanging oneself or...

This guy:
ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) - The body of a 41-year-old man was found in a wooded area next to a guillotine he built and used to kill himself, police said. The man, from the Detroit suburb of Melvindale, was discovered Monday by workers from a shopping center near his home.

Allen Park Deputy Police Chief Dale Covert said the roughly six-foot tall guillotine was bolted to a tree and included a swing arm. Covert said police also found several store receipts detailing the materials used to assemble the device.

"I can't even tell you how long it must have taken him to construct," he said. "This man obviously was very determined to end his life."
You don't say!

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