“For the second time in just over two months a man armed with a rifle attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. A Secret Service agent spotted a man with a gun at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., and fired at him before the man could hit anyone. Trump was unharmed, and the police arrested a suspect.” from The New York Times, Monday, September 16, 2024
I had already started this post when this incident happened on September 15, 2024. This is the second time Mr. Trump has been a target of gun violence, the first time wounding him and killing two innocent bystanders.
I have written before about the epidemic of injuries and deaths due to gun violence. Whether it’s one person injured in a domestic altercation or a single shooter causing mass casualties, we see far too many of these episodes. They should never happen.
Everyone believes we need a solution but can’t agree on what. Do too many people have guns or do the wrong people have guns, or both?
I found this article interesting and wanted to share it with you. It is from an email newsletter I receive from Oklahoma Voice. Oklahoma Voice provides independent, nonpartisan reporting and is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
The article reviews a study done at Oregon Health and Science University looking at how gun ownership and mental illness are related to gun violence.
Study finds prevalence of firearms is driving soaring gun deaths in U.S. – not mental illness
by Ben Botkin, Oklahoma Voice
September 12, 2024
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 for free, immediate support 24/7.
The prevalence of firearms in the U.S. – not mental illness – is driving the surge in gun deaths across the country, a new study concludes.
The research led by an Oregon Health & Science University professor looked at mental health conditions and firearm deaths in the U.S. and 40 other countries. It found the U.S. had 20 times more deaths by firearms than the other countries even when rates of mental illness were the same.
“We have the same degree of mental health issues as other countries, but our firearm death rate is far greater and continuing to increase. In most of the countries, firearms deaths are decreasing.”
Dr. Archie Bleyer, a clinical research professor at OHSU and lead author of the study
Other researchers have looked at mental illness and gun ownership but this study is the first to include this many countries.
Bleyer’s findings, published in the journal PLOS One, challenge the common assumption that mental health disorders are to blame for the high rate of firearm deaths in the U.S., which have risen 23% since 2000 while dropping 27% in other countries.
Bleyer, a pediatric oncologist, dug into the issue after his 12-year-old grandson’s classmate died by a firearm. He said he knew the boy’s mother and her son “left a note and used the gun, but didn’t need to die because he had a bad day.”
“her son left a note and used the gun, but didn’t need to die because he had a bad day.”
Dr. Bleyer, pediatric oncologist
Suicides account for most firearm deaths in Oregon, and young people often are the victims. In 2022, 488 people died from suicide by firearm in Oregon, according to Oregon Health Authority statistics. 127 of them were people under age 35. Another 161 people died in firearm-related homicides.
Overall, 674 people died of firearms in Oregon in 2022, including accidents and interactions with police.
The study found that policies on gun ownership can reduce firearm deaths. Countries that have decreased the number of guns owned by residents reduced their firearm death rates. These include Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Israel.
In Australia, the government drove down the rate of gun ownership with a government program that purchased firearms from gun owners. Other countries limit the number of firearms an individual can own or ban assault weapons.
In the United States, Congress has struggled to enact legislation cracking down on gun ownership, with strong resistance from gun rights activists and many Republicans.
Two years ago, following the mass school shooting of 19 students and 2 others in Uvalde, Texas, Congress passed a law to expand background checks for gun buyers. And in August 2024 a law banning “ghost guns,” which are untraceable, took effect in Oregon.
Bleyer said decreasing the number of firearms in the country is critical to stemming gun deaths. He noted that the U.S. has 4% of the world’s population, but almost one-quarter of the world’s firearms, and half of all non-military assault weapons are in the U.S.
Actions that reduce the level of gun ownership will help reduce the deaths that are linked to suicides and accidents, he said.
“By reducing prevalence, we should be able to reduce the firearm death rate,” he said.
Another issue is the ease of access to firearms, especially for households with children. He and other experts recommend safe storage devices that can deter people.
“Even though parents more often than not think their gun is locked and their children do not know where it is or how to unlock it, they’re usually wrong,” Bleyer said. “More often than not, when tested, their children know where it is, how to get into it and they often will play with it when their parents are gone.”
At the same time, Bleyer stressed his study doesn’t change the mental health crisis and lack of treatment that plagues Oregon and other states.
“We do have significant mental health problems, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “We don’t have enough mental health providers, facilities, treatments. It’s the way that we have facilitated killing ourselves that leads to death with firearms where we take this to the extreme.”
Other contributors to this study are Dr. Stuart Siegel, of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California; Dr. Jaime Estrada, of Texas Doctors for Social Responsibility; and Dr. Charles R. Thomas Jr. of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and previous chair of the Department of Radiation Medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and X.
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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If you or a loved one have experienced gun violence my heart aches for you. I desperately want our nation to address this unacceptable problem. Whether or not you have experienced it, the best solution is to be prepared.
Review this previous post to learn how to survive if you are threatened with gun violence.
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