Bloomberg gives gun control partial credit for New York's low suicide rate
Michael Bloomberg. Azi Paybarah, via flickr
9:09 am Feb. 24, 20127
During his regular Friday morning radio appearance today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York City's relatively low suicide rate can be attributed in part to the city's relatively strict gun-control laws.
"The rate of suicide in New York City is almost half of what it is in the country on average," he said. "And most of that comes from the difficulty in getting a gun."
The mayor wasn't merely touting yesterday's Health Department news—that only 6 New Yorkers in every 100,000 New Yorkers die by their own hands, compared to 11 nationally—he was also skillfully redirecting talk away from a disturbing series of local shootings in which children were killed.
"This is I think week three, the third Friday in a row, if I’m not mistaken, that we’ve been talking about, this morning it’s a child, shot, on the streets of New York," said Bloomberg's WOR co-host John Gambling. "The eight-year-old. I mean, we don’t have to go through the same, all of the things we’ve talked about, but it is distressing to say the least."
"Guns," responded the mayor. "But having said that, we have reduced the number of guns in the city, and I’ll tell you where it shows up. Health Department put out the suicide statistics yesterday."
"It turns out that an awful lot of people, when they want to kill themselves, reach for a gun," continued the mayor. "And if they can’t get that gun, the thought goes away and they don’t kill themselves."
"Now you still have the jumpings and the subways and those kinds of things," he said.
Wait a minute . . . the suicide rate is LOW because of the DIFFICULTY of obtaining a gun in NYC and the crime in the street is due to the easy availability of guns? Something doesn't add up.
For a presumably intelligent person, Bloomberg sure does say some stupid things. "Correlation does not equal causation" is a basic tenet of statistics. Here, there isn't even necessarily any correlation between "gun control" and a lower suicide rate. On the one hand Bloomy says there is a problem with too many illegal guns on the street, and then he ostensibly claims that there are fewer guns in NY and that, somehow, results in a lower suicide rate. Further, isn't the Mayor's goal only to reduce the number of "illegal guns"? That's at least what he claims. There shouldn't be a reduction in guns in the hands of law abiding citizens, right? Wrong. The Mayor's goal is to make it as difficult as possible for anyone in his fifedom to purchase a firearm, no matter how law abiding. Cleally, he is driven by ideaology, not reason, and routinely lies when it comes to his true goals with respect to private ownership of firearms.
Antigun politicians and antigun "researchers" a/o scholars have explained to us that men choose guns and women choose other means to erase themselves from present realities; and hizzoner now tells us that there are fewer overall suicides in NYC.
The truth may be that more men choose the firearm to commit suicide. It would be curious to compare current suicides among women in NYC to determine how many have resorted to a gun to solve what may be their temporary problem by permanent means. Those comparative statistics would contribute in modest degree to revealing the underlying facts, first, about the assertion of who uses what, and might suggest something about the insights of some supposedly informed people when compared with their own biases against others.
Hizzoner's choice has been to point a finger at the gun, gun, gun, gun, gun, instead of at those who are lawbreakers when they carry them. We should ask why: e.g., if he will ignore the lawbreakers in those instances, why does he declaim against each NY state citizen with handgun/pistol license under Penal Law Section 400 from carrying a gun in legal possession into NYC?
This goes to the heart of revelation of the emotive language the man chooses to use when he declaims against "illegal guns." Here's the truth: there are no illegal guns. The legality is resident in the individual, not the object. (HIs apologists will try to answer this by saying that it is illegal to bring certain guns into the jurisdiction of the United States, or to own/possess/use certain guns within the jurisdictions of NY state; but that would be a specious argument to defend trite reasoning when, pre-eminently, no such guns "travel" or "take up residence" in offense of law: it is always an individual or individuals acting in concert who cause the breaking of those laws.)
The mayor has become tiresome.
Sadly, suicide rates are influenced by politicians and the vagaries of different Coroners. I live in San Francisco which, decades ago, was called "The Suicide Capitol of America." We had a high "Suicide Rate." Why?
We were told it was because our Golden Gate Bridge, "drew America's sad and suffering to 'the end of the line,' - off the bridge." That was rubbish! It was because we had a serious and methodical Coroner with a few dedicated investigators. In addition to routine work, they conducted "Psychological Autopsies," interviewing neighbors, friends etc. to clarify suspicious deaths.
Insurance Companies loved that Coroner. Many Life Insurance policies were "voided by suicide," because of his verdicts. That stopped when he retired, and San Francisco's "Suicide Rate" dropped.
Mayor Bloomberg claims credit for sunshine and blames rain on his enemies. He's trying to head the shaky Gun "Control" movement, and he emits poses, pontifications and denunciations.
"His" statistics are his bread and butter. You may trust them like you trust guys selling the Brooklyn Bridge.
Regards,
Peter
*******
ExSuicidePreventionVol
San Francisco
OLD 'BLOOMY' BLEW IT THIS TIME! WHATEVER HE'S SHOOTING/SMOKING SHOULD BE OUTLAWED! MAYBE HE SHOULD MAKE IT AGAINST THE LAW TO JUMP UNDER A TRAIN OR OFF A BRIDGE....THEN HE COULD SAY THEY BROKE THE LAW AND NOT COMMIT SUICIDE! WHAT'S THIS ABOUT "THEY COULDN'T OBTAIN A GUN, SO THEY CHANGED THEIR MINDS ABOUT SUICIDE". HOW CAN HE CONFIRM THIS? DID THEY CALL TO HIM FOR BEING ANTI-GUN AND SAVING THEIR LIVES? THIS GUY IS SUCH A BIG JOKE...BUT NO ONE IS LAUGHING!
"cogito, ergo armatum sum"
I suspect that if there's any truth to any of this it's because suicides happen in the surrounding suburbs: Westchester and Fairfield counties by people who wake up and realize they have to go to NYC for work.
Why isn't Bloomberg in prison for treason!?
"The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." -Samuel Adams
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." -Alexander Hamilton
"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." -Patrick Henry
"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -President Thomas Jefferson
"To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them." -George Mason
"A free people ought … to be armed." President George Washington, January 7, 1790
"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion … in private self-defense." President John Adams