Is gun violence a public health issue?

HEARTLESS wrote: The Violence Policy Center couldn't care less about gun safety, as in safe gun handling from proper training. They are the repackaged gun ban advocates, period. A huge number of gun deaths is from suicide which is almost never removed from their numbers on murder. Arguing suicide is self murder is wrong, it is mental illness or relief from horrible pain or some perceived unwinnable situation.

I respectfully disagree with your premise. I don't know what your own personal experience might or might not be with regard to suicide of a loved one, so I won't even go there. That being said, I lost a loved one (spouse) to suicide by gunfire. Fatal. Loaded a pistol given to her by a clerk to look at while he turned his back to her to get the proper paperwork ready, shot one round into a wall (could just have easily hit an innocent bystander), put the gun barrel to her temple, pulled the trigger and died instantly. Did it in a crowded pawn shop. Caused untold trauma to patrons and store employees alike. Still don't know what toll her very violent death took on those who witnessed it. Have always had a very hard time wondering how many of them had to have therapy afterward. I'm pretty sure none of them just walked away from it and resumed their lives as if nothing happened.

An earlier attempt by my spouse at suicide by drug overdose was unsuccessful. Using a gun, however, left little to no doubt about the outcome.

I don't really know of a more violent way to end one's own life or the life of another than by gunfire. I won't argue your assertion regarding suicide being self murder. Rather, I'll argue that it is, in fact, violent. Very violent. It causes health issues with relatives. It causes health issues within society in general. To deny those facts is more than a little disingenuous.

Then show the training provided by the Violence Policy Center. Training, not gun ban strategies. As usual, you try to focus on a word out of context. Where did I state gun deaths weren't violent?
Also. having worked in a trauma level one hospital for over 14 years, I saw the damage from attempted suicide.

HEARTLESS wrote: Then show the training provided by the Violence Policy Center. Training, not gun ban strategies. As usual, you try to focus on a word out of context. Where did I state gun deaths weren't violent?

The issue isn't "training provided by the Violence Policy Center". Your focus on that organization to the detriment of the intent of the discussion is facile.

ZHawke wrote:

HEARTLESS wrote: Then show the training provided by the Violence Policy Center. Training, not gun ban strategies. As usual, you try to focus on a word out of context. Where did I state gun deaths weren't violent?

The issue isn't "training provided by the Violence Policy Center". Your focus on that organization to the detriment of the intent of the discussion is facile.

Why not start your own discussion area where you can control all aspects of the discussion since you can't answer simple questions?

HEARTLESS wrote: Why not start your own discussion area where you can control all aspects of the discussion since you can't answer simple questions?

That's just it, HEARTLESS - I don't want to control all aspects of the discussion. I'd rather see the discussion stay on topic, though, about whether or not gun violence in this nation is a public health issue. After all, that's what the OP was titled.

I won't answer your simple question because it has no relevance to the overall discussion in that it focuses on you, yourself, and whomever else you perceive yourself to be. It's not always about you, HEARTLESS.

The point I was trying to make has to do with societal impacts, both from an emotional/psychological perspective and from a cost perspective. Therein lies the "public health" aspect of the OP.

You, however, appear to me to be attempting to bring the discussion down to a more personal level for yourself by being very defensive about what you did or did not specifically say. I don't really care one way or the other how that plays out in your own mind. I'll stick to the topic at hand.

In the interest of fairness, I Googled " gun violence public health issue pros and cons ". There were 830,000 results. We all can, and probably all should, do our own research on this issue.

HEARTLESS wrote: Then show the training provided by the Violence Policy Center. Training, not gun ban strategies. As usual, you try to focus on a word out of context. Where did I state gun deaths weren't violent?
Also. having worked in a trauma level one hospital for over 14 years, I saw the damage from attempted suicide.

I see you added that last part about working in a trauma level one hospital and saw the damage from attempted suicide. Thank you for that. I didn't know. I would still, however, ask that you try and go beyond what you saw from attempted suicide and look at the "toll" it takes beyond those who attempt it. That's the point I was trying to make in my previous post. I wasn't calling you out on stating suicide gun deaths weren't violent. Rather, I was attempting to illustrate how these very violent deaths affect not only the person who does it, but also a LOT of other people, as well. I apologize if I gave the wrong impression.

I believe the reason FBI statistics do not separate it out from their murder statistics has more to do with the fact suicide deaths as a result of gunfire are gun violence related. I may be wrong, but that's the impression I get.

As I stated, my first spouse tried unsuccessfully to OD on drugs. She planned out her next attempt without anyone knowing anything whatsoever about her plan, including her health care providers and myself. It was detailed. It was flawless in its simplicity. It was also deadly in that it included a gun she would not otherwise have had access to if she hadn't also violated her healthcare psychiatric restrictions for outpatient treatment regimen and if I'd have taken away her credit cards and not allowed her access to our bank account via our debit card. That cash is what she purchased the ammunition with that she loaded into the gun in the pawnshop and that she used to end her life instantly and irrevocably. I've been dealing with this ever since. It's called guilt by association. Anyone who's been forced into a similar situation knows exactly what I'm talking about. The healthcare costs associated with resultant therapy requirements for people like me are astronomical - ergo the public health issue because, in the end, these costs affect each and every one of us whether those costs are direct or indirect. Place those costs into other scenarios in which guns have been used (e.g.; Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, the Navy Shipyard, the Aurora Theater shooting, and so many more), and anyone and everyone should begin to get the picture of how much these types of incidents "cost" each and every one of us.

Edited to add: add to all of this the gun "accidents" that keep happening on a daily basis, and you arguably have a recipe for disaster. Take, for example, the incident in Idaho in which a two year old toddler was somehow able to unsecure a permitted concealed carry handgun and accidentally shoot and kill his own mother. One must wonder what the long term repercussions, emotionally, psychologically, and in terms of costs will be in just this one incident. When you factor in the total number of deaths attributed to accidental shootings, be they by children or adults, in the U.S. on an annual basis going back virtually for decades, and one also should be able to see the relationship between those statistics and a public health and safety concern.

I just saw this article:

www.wisn.com/news/campaign-to-humanize-g...hes-tuesday/30672030

Will it help? Is it a start? Or even a step in the "right" direction? Fluff? Kumbaya?

Here's the link to the page, itself:

371productions.com/what-we-make/radio/precious-lives/

There's another movement beginning to take off. It's called No Notoriety . Their mission appears to be one of keeping perps names out of media coverage as much as possible in order to take away their "incentives" to do some of the horrible things they do in seeking the limelight. They're on Facebook, and I recommend giving them a "like".