Gun suicides are becoming far more common than gun-related homicides, accounting for 64 percent of all gun deaths in 2012, according to new statistics. And the suicides have become especially common among older white men.
There were 32,288 deaths from firearm violence in the United States in 2012, a rate that's remained relatively stable over the past few years. But since 2006, gun suicides have increased from 57 percent of all firearm-related deaths, according to research published this month in the Annual Review of Public Health.
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Suicide risk rises in adolescence, but it also increases sharply among white men in retirement age. By 85 and older, the gun suicide rate for white men was five times higher than the rate for black men and 3.2 times the rate for Hispanic men.
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The new U.S. Surgeon General's nomination was held up by more than a year largely because the NRA opposed him for having the nerve to call guns a health care issue. But these new statistics underscore why you can't ignore firearm deaths as a threat to public health.
