Reducing Firearm Suicides Starts With Gun Reform, Not Gun Control

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 universal background checks: 97 percent of all voters, including 93 percent of Republican voters.[3]

A large majority of gun owners also support gun reform. According to the Pew Center, 89 percent of gun owners believe that people who are mentally ill should be prevented from buying a gun, 82 percent believe that people on no-fly or government watch lists should be barred from buying a gun, 77 percent support background checks for guns bought privately and at gun shows, and 54 percent are in favor of creating a federal database to track all gun sales.[4]

The key when talking about reducing gun suicides isn’t to ask “What do you think of gun control?” People either support it or oppose it, and are entrenched in their opinion. The question to ask instead is, “How do we solve the problem of gun suicides?”

Most gun owners want guns to be used responsibly, but don’t want to be told to stop owning guns. For this reason, it’s important, when talking about curbing the proliferation of firearms to reduce the number of firearm-related suicides, to frame it as “gun reform,” not “gun control.” This is more than a matter of semantics: “Gun control” is perceived as limiting gun ownership while the focus of “gun reform” is seen as making sure that measures are in place so that people who have guns use them responsibly.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has written that when it comes to guns, public safety shouldn’t be a determining factor; only “text, history, and tradition” matter.[5] I disagree. To me, nothing is more important than public safety, the same way it’s the essential factor in operating a motor vehicle. Background checks, 10-day waiting periods to buy a gun, red-flag laws, gunlocks, and mandates regarding the safe storage of firearms and ammunition are life-saving.

The United States has the highest per-capita rate of gun ownership in the world. That doesn’t mean we have to have the highest rate for firearm deaths, however, especially gun-related suicides. Talking about gun reform, not gun control, is a good way to begin initiating change.