Thread: Hey Son, lets go to the shootin range! VIDEO INCLUDED

Originally Posted by sycld

not to be gruesome, but this makes me wonder how many suicides occur at gun ranges.

most people don't realize that there is actually much clearer, strong correlation between an increase in suicides and gun posessions rather than homocides and gun posession.

That's a good question. My first guess would be that it's quite rare, but this is based mainly on the fact that I've really never heard a gun-control organization call for increased precautions against who can rent guns at ranges, and as a general rule, certain gun-control organizations will try to make a stink out of ANY sub-category of gun violence no matter how uncommon (e.g., .50-caliber rifles).

Furthermore, guns have two advantages as suicide weapons: The first is that they're readily available in many homes, and the second is that they're so quick and easy to use (literally a "point and click" suicide). When you have to go to a range and rent the weapon, that takes away the first advantage, so I'd suspect that it might make a lot of people more likely to choose some method that isn't so quick and easy, but is readily available to them. All this is just conjecture on my part, though.

Originally Posted by Syme

That's a good question. My first guess would be that it's quite rare, but this is based mainly on the fact that I've really never heard a gun-control organization call for increased precautions against who can rent guns at ranges, and as a general rule, certain gun-control organizations will try to make a stink out of ANY sub-category of gun violence no matter how uncommon (e.g., .50-caliber rifles).

Furthermore, guns have two advantages as suicide weapons: The first is that they're readily available in many homes, and the second is that they're so quick and easy to use (literally a "point and click" suicide). When you have to go to a range and rent the weapon, that takes away the first advantage, so I'd suspect that it might make a lot of people more likely to choose some method that isn't so quick and easy, but is readily available to them. All this is just conjecture on my part, though.

So I Google'd "suicide shooting range," and found a link in one of the first results that went to this article. Apparently, suicides at shooting ranges occur with enough frequency to be of some concern:

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2006/08..._Page/004.html

Hmm, going by that article's (indirect) citation of a finding that "on average there is one suicide at a shooting range every four to six years", that could be as many as a few hundred gun range suicides per year (I'm not sure of the exact number of ranges in the US; Wikipedia suggests it ranges from more than 1 per 100,000 residents in gun-friendly states, to 1 for every several 100K residents in less gun-friendly states... assuming a national average of 1 range per 200,000 people gives us 300 range suicides per year). I'll admit this surprises me. I never would have guessed it was that prevalent.