Why choose to report on gun suicides?
I've monitored gun violence research for nearly a decade as part of covering crime and public safety in Cincinnati. A study from last year claimed Ohio was one of the many states where gun deaths outnumber deaths due to motor vehicle crashes, which is true.
Data like this is often used to support gun control legislation, and opponents of such laws will often point out that this data includes suicides, implying that when the public see statistics like "death due to firearms," the majority of people think all the deaths are murders.
I decided to look into that. Inspired by project from the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, I compiled the stats from the Ohio Department of Public Health, which tracks the causes and manner of deaths across all of our state's 88 counties.
What I found was striking. When looking at gun homicide rates, all the typical counties light up with the highest rates: Hamilton, Cuyahoga and Franklin – all the most urban counties in the state.
But when you look at gun suicides, the entire state lights up.
I started asking if anyone was doing anything to address this. That led to me talk to the Crawford family of Anderson Township who lost their teenage son to gun suicide. I also talked to other groups of the front lines of mental health crises who want the public to know that suicide counts as gun violence, and there are things that everyone can do to help prevent it.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why choose to report on gun suicides?
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