'Volatile mix': Kids at risk for suicide can get guns, report finds

[onehandle]

Source: NBC News

As many as one in five children who are at risk of suicide live in homes where they can get hold of guns -- the single most effective means to killing themselves -- researchers reported on Monday.

They said their findings show it’s extremely important to screen children for suicide risk, and to educate parents about how to keep guns out of their hands if they are. And early treatment is also vital.

“A lot of kids, surprisingly, don’t have a history of mental illness but they attempt suicide,” says Dr. Stephen Teach, an emergency room doctor at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Suicide is the No. 3 cause of death for children and youths aged 10 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 4,600 kids and young adults kill themselves each year, and 45 percent of them use guns. Another 40 percent suffocate or strangle themselves and 8 percent poison themselves.

Read more: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/06/18068928-volatile-mix-kids-at-risk-for-suicide-can-get-guns-report-finds

[Iliyah]

1. NRA and people who support

them don't give a fuck.

[Bibliovore]

2. There's a history, and then there's a medical history

"A lot of kids, surprisingly, don’t have a history of mental illness but they attempt suicide" -- The majority of people who commit suicide are depressed. However, far from all people with depression are treated for it. People who don't get treated don't have a medical history of depression, but that doesn't mean they're not depressed, or even that depression hasn't been a long-term problem for them.

The treatment percentage must be worse for kids, who not only can't usually seek help on their own but are often dismissed as going through youthful moodiness or phases, and who inherently lack adult perspective on how deep a problem might be.

People should definitely be alert for signs of depression, anxiety, and other mental-health problems, just as they should be alert for signs of physical illness. And just as for physical illnesses, they should seek treatment if symptoms persist. People with guns at home need to be that much more careful.

[nolabear]

3. Normal kids exhibit many behaviors that in adults would be considered mental illness.

This is an important factor. Adolescents are often frightened, obsessive, impulsive beyond reason, engage in magical thinking, are deeply narcissistically wounded a lot of the time, and all this can be within the norm for that age. You all know how we joke about them, how impossible they are. It's because they ARE. Hormones are changing them at a rate that's disorienting and frightening. They're expected to be secure when they have no idea who they are any more. Being acceptable is paramount as they begin to feel sexual and to long for others to find them attractive. Their emotions are roller-coaster rides, and they're afraid to look weird so won't ask questions that would help calm them. Some direct it inward and some outward (and combinations of the two).

When the family and school and society helps them to contain those feelings and keeps them away from things that can harm them or those they despise today (and may be best friends with tomorrow) then they, and we, have a far better chance of them growing up, getting some perspective, and understanding how very much more there is to life than that asshole who bullies them or the "unacceptable" thoughts and feelings they might have.

This doesn't mean no kids have mental illness. Sadly, some do, and need extreme care.

Keep your guns and your drugs inaccessible and let that kid know they are valuable, that their gifts haven't manifested yet, and that the world needs them.

[maxsolomon]

4. HS classmate of my 2 neices did it with the family shotgun

Out of the blue, with Grandma home, got the shotgun, went behind the barn, and pulled the trigger into her chest. No note. Family unaware of any issues.

Firearms enable impulsive suicides.

[ManiacJoe]

5. Proper storage of firearms is a good thing.

[Exultant Democracy]

6. Where are you going to store a firearm where a desperate teen can not get it?

If the gun is in the house a teen will be able to get to it. If it is locked away a teen will get the key, combo the kid will figure it out.

[ManiacJoe]

7. An appropriate gun safe (not lock box) will solve the problem.

If the kid is using his spare time to try all the lock combinations, you have bigger problems than guns to deal with.

[Exultant Democracy]

8. Yes the bigger problem is the kid wants the gun to shoot himself, look a the OP

Most combos are pretty easy to crack, hacker 101 stuff if you know the person who set the combo and want something inside the safe.

[ManiacJoe]

9. We are obviously not talking about the same things regarding safes.

I am talking about something like this:


$1000, 450 lbs, one million different combos to try to find the factory setting.