Suicide update
by Paul Peake
Australian Shooters Journal
March 1999
The two most common arguments put forward by the anti-gun lobby against private firearms ownership centre on the misuse of guns in crime and their role in suicides. In both cases the movement has a tendency to overstate the connection and preclude debate. This involves highlighting material which favours the prohibitionist view and exaggerating the efficacy of particular anti-gun policies.
Suicide is a poignant issue. The majority of people tend to form their opinions about it based on emotion rather than a considered review of the evidence. As a result, the subject can be a very effective publicity tool - a fact the anti-gun lobby appreciates. As part of the utilisation process anti-gun advocates often imply that severely restricting access to firearms will generate a significant decline in the suicide rate. The argument has superficial appeal. Obviously, if guns are unavailable then gun-related deaths will be rare. It does not follow, however, that the aggregate suicide rate will be greatly affected and there is considerable evidence, both national and international, to support this. Despite severe firearm restrictions Japan has a notably high suicide rate. The United States, on the other hand, with one of the highest percentages of private gun ownership in the world, has an overall ratio comparable to Australia's. Clearly, factors which have nothing to do with firearms are at work. Nevertheless, the anti-gun lobby understands that it is easy to sell the idea of increased restrictions to an incognizant public.
From the shooter's perspective the most potent countermeasure is to stay well informed. An appreciation of the facts makes it much easier to convince the uninitiated and a lot harder for the opposition to push their agenda. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics suicide figures and the way in which the anti-gun lobby has recently tried to use them to press its case illustrate the point.
The email from the media monitoring service read:
4BC 1600 hrs 15/1/99 NEWS: Gun laws introduced after the Port Arthur massacre are starting to reap rewards according to anti-firearm groups. The number of firearm related suicides has dropped by 14%. ACTUALITY - Roland Browne, Gun Control Coalition.
Browne's claim accentuates the technique of only citing data which appear to vindicate the anti-gun position. The statement neglected to mention that the recently released ABS figures show that the overall suicide rate in Australia actually rose by a very substantial 14% in the 1997 period, representing an alarming increase of 24% since 1988.
According to the ABS data the number of suicides grew considerably in four states, as well as in the Northern and Australian Capital Territories. In Victoria, youth suicide involving those aged between 15 and 24 increased by 50%, up from 78 cases in 1996 to 117 in 1997. New South Wales recorded a 37% increase for the same age group, rising from 124 to 170 cases.
Table 1. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Predictably, the media never queried Browne's claim. If they had they would have discovered that firearm related suicide has been in decline for quite some time. ABS information contained in Table 2 shows that the gap between the total number of suicides and those involving guns has been widening throughout most of the century.
Table 2. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Since the 1980s there has been a marked reduction in gun related deaths (Table 3).
Table 3. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Nevertheless, the use of alternative methods has increased and the total number of suicides has continued to rise.
The degree of firearm regulation has increased considerably across Australia over the past two decades, culminating in the Federal government's 'buyback' confiscation scheme.
Table 4. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Nevertheless, comprehensive licensing and compulsory safety examinations in South Australia (1980), restrictions on particular types of firearms in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria (1979-96), tightened licensing requirements and a mandatory 'cooling off period' in Queensland (1992), along with a list of similar measures in most other states and territories, appear to have had little effect on the overall suicide rate. Despite anti-gun lobby assurances, increasingly stringent firearm laws have not altered the upward trend.
According to a recent media report on the experimental 'Northam Firearms Injury Prevention Project' currently under way in Western Australia, preliminary figures for 1998 indicate that the suicide rate has continued to climb over the past twelve months, despite an extensive media campaign demonising firearms. WA may provide an important guide to the merit or otherwise of particularly prohibitive firearm regulations in reducing suicide. Many of the restrictions imposed around the country following the Australasian Police Ministers' Council meeting in May, 1996, had already been in place in Western Australia for quite some time - including comprehensive registration and the need to demonstrate a 'genuine reason', the need to obtain a police permit in order to purchase a firearm, a comprehensive ban on semi-automatic centrefire rifles and a requirement that all guns be securely stored. Nevertheless, the standardised death rate from suicide per 100,000 people rose in WA between 1988 and 1997 from 13.7 to 14.2. Despite instigating a series of regulatory measures and restrictions on particular types of firearms throughout most of the 1980s, seven out of Australia's eight states and territories finished 1997 with higher standardised death rates from suicide than they had a decade before.
Table 5. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Like the ill-conceived state and territory regulations which preceded it, the Federal Government's 'buyback' confiscation program does not appear to have had any more obvious effect on the aggregate number of suicides in Australia than it has had on the rising rates of serious crime. While the number of firearm laws, regulations and restrictions have increased across Australia the number of people - and especially young people - killing themselves has continued to rise. 1997 saw the highest number of people ever recorded take their own lives.
The facts appear lost on the anti-gun movement and its supporters, however. The lobby seems far more concerned with exaggerating the effects of measures ultimately designed to destroy private firearms ownership than with addressing the real issues underpinning suicide. The truth is, the anti-gun lobby's media statements didn't help the 2,723 Australians who fell victim to suicide in 1997 - but were they ever really meant to?
Regrettably, there still appears to be little political will to tackle Australia's worsening suicide problem. State and Federal governments persist in listening to the anti-gun lobby's nonsense, shooters continue to be disadvantaged by irrational restrictions which clearly don't work and far too many Australians are still taking their own lives.
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