Reducing Firearm Suicides Starts With Gun Reform, Not Gun Control |
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Most gun owners want guns to be used responsibly.
Most Republicans support universal background checks.
The key question should be, “How do we solve the problem of gun suicides?”
Advocates of common-sense gun laws often cite the number of firearm deaths in the United States—nearly 50,000 per year—as a reason for tougher restrictions on the sale and distribution of guns. Rarely, though, do they or others note that more than half of all firearm deaths in this country are the result of suicides, not homicides.[1]
In poll after poll, a large majority of Americans want stricter gun laws. This includes Republicans—79 percent of whom support background checks for gun shows and private sales, and 78 percent of whom support laws to prevent mentally ill people from buying guns—as well as most Democrats.[2] A poll by Quinnipiac University found even greater support for........