Suicide and the Lack of Political Will
by Paul Peake
Australian Shooters Journal
October 1998
One of the major charges brought against private firearms ownership by the anti-gun lobby in Australia centres on the role of firearms in suicides, the argument being that if all privately owned guns are removed from the community there will be a corresponding fall in the incidence of suicide. The facts suggest, however, that firearm controls have little impact on overall suicide rates, and the lack of political will in addressing the real issues might be killing hundreds of Australians every year.
Table 1 shows that the overall suicide ratio in Australia has altered very little in more than a century. It is reasonable to assume that as the community has become more urbanised and regulatory measures have become more stringent, the degree of private firearms ownership over the same period has declined, yet the suicide rate has nevertheless remained relatively stable.
Table 1. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
While the overall percentage of suicides has remained even for more than 100 years, Table 2 shows that suicide by firearm has actually been decreasing for some time. However, alternative methods such as gassing and hanging have been steadily increasing.
Table 2. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The decline in suicide by firearm outlined in Table 2 and the corresponding increase in alternative methods raises some serious questions about the effectiveness of firearm regulation in the reduction of suicide overall. In their study of suicide rates in Queensland following the introduction of amendments to the Weapons Act in 1992, Cantor and Slater found the results anything but conclusive. Overall rural suicide rates "showed no convincing decrease in any age group or either sex". In metropolitan and provincial areas there was a considerable increase in methods other than firearm "with significantly greater use of drugs and hanging".
Number of male suicides in Qld by different methods before and after increased firearm regulation.
Table
3. Source: Cantor, H. & Slater, P. (1995). "The impact of firearm control
legislation on suicide in Queensland: preliminary findings", The Medical Journal
of Australia. (Vol. 162, 5 June, 1995).
In their recently published review of method-specific suicide rates in Australia between 1964 and 1993, Dudley, Kelk, Florio, Howard and Waters also noted an increase in alternative methods, especially among males aged 15-24:
....A clear trend exists, both nationally and for individual States, of a reduction in firearm suicide rates in the past 10-15 years, and of an increase in hanging suicide rates over the whole period at a substantially greater rate than the increase by all other methods.... Hanging is now the most common method of youth suicide in most States.
A significant increase in alternative suicide methods has also been highlighted in a recent Flinders University study carried out by Stan Bordeaux. The report found:
(T)he number of gun-related suicides in rural and remote areas is falling but deaths by hanging are increasing.
The same lack of a definite correlation between the degree of firearm control and suicide ratios is further magnified at the international level. Table 4 contains data adapted from the World Health Organisation's review of international suicide rates. It considers a range of countries and shows that varying degrees of firearm regulation have little bearing on overall suicide rate
Table 4. Source:
"Guns in the Medical Literature: A Failure of Peer Review",
Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, Vol. 83, 1994.
The evidence clearly shows that harsh firearm controls have a negligible impact on overall suicide ratios within the community. When viewed as a fractional percentage of the total population in various Australian states and territories, suicide rates show little correlation between overall levels and regulatory measures within particular jurisdictions.
Table 5. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics data. (See notes)
Given the documented differences in firearm ownership densities between individual states and territories, overall suicide rates obviously have little to do with the availability or otherwise of firearms. Nevertheless, the anti-gun lobby and its supporters consistently shelter behind the phenomenon, even to the point of the patently illogical.
The recent review of the 28-day waiting period on the licensing of subsequent firearms in some jurisdictions and the anti-gun lobby's claim that it will have an effect on suicide rates is a good case in point. The notion that someone who already has lawful access to a firearm would bother purchasing another one for the purpose of committing suicide is ridiculous; however, it has been one of the chief objections put forward against sensible amendments. By pushing such an irrational line the anti-firearm fraternity harm their cause. It simply appears as though the serious issue of suicide is being used as a convenient stalking-horse for an alternative agenda.
The fact is suicide has far more to do with economics and one's sense of self-esteem than firearms regulation. Table 6 illustrates the relationship between unemployment rates and suicide in young men over a 22-year period.
Table
6. Source: Figures adapted from a paper by Barry Malley, Senior Fellow, Centre
for Independent Studies, December 1994.
The disproportionate suicide ratios between rural, urban and provincial regions further highlight the point. Services and opportunities have been declining in the bush for some time; correspondingly, there has been a continuing upward trend in rural suicide rates. Notably, the drift has continued despite the fact that over the past ten years very significant amendments intended to limit access to firearms have been made to firearm regulations across several states and territories. As Bordeaux noted, suicide by firearm has been declining as a factor in rural suicide overall, but the rate nevertheless continues to rise. Plainly, people do not kill themselves because they have access to guns.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that firearm regulation has little bearing on the overall incidence of suicide in Australia, the political will to tackle the real issues underpinning the problem is plainly missing. It is far easier to unjustly demonise guns and gun owners. The recent Australian People's Forum on Youth Suicide, held in Canberra, gave the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia an important opportunity to contribute to the debate on the vexing question of suicide. One point which the conference helped emphasise was the meagre degree of official resources applied to the problem.
The evidence is plain - attacks on private firearms ownership over the past 10 to 15 years have had no effect on overall suicide rates. The point is consistently reinforced at both the national and international levels. Despite considerable differences in the degree of firearm density per head of population and various regulatory approaches, there is little contrast in overall suicide ratios between Australian states and territories, and what differences there are may have far more to do with the degree of urbanisation, as opposed to the size of the rural sector with particular regions.
Following the recent release of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs report, the Federal Government announced that it would be allocating $31 million to suicide prevention programs over the 1998-99 period. Australians would be right in asking how much more could be done if the $500 million appropriated from taxpayers for the forced confiscation of firearms had been put to addressing the real issues. How many Australians who have taken their own lives over the past two years would still be with us today?
Home > Research archive > 1998 > Suicide and the Lack of Political Will