Stricter laws on gun control would lower suicide rate

STRICTER gun control laws would help reduce the high number of suicides in this country, experts believe.

Consultant psychiatrist at St Mary’s Hospital, Castlebar, Co Mayo, Dr John Connolly says tighter gun laws would have an impact on reducing the number of suicides. He was commenting on figures referred to by Health Minister Micheál Martin in the Dáil. They showed the number of deaths involving firearms were:

37 male and five female suicides in 1998.

28 men and two women in 1999.

28 men and one woman in 2000.

30 males and one female in 2001.

“One of the important elements in any suicide prevention programme is limiting access to the means of suicide. That only works well to reduce rates where the means are commonly used and easily restricted,” he said.

Dr Connolly told the Irish Medical News )that in the US there are 30,000 suicides a year, with half involving firearms. “In a country like ours it could certainly make an impact on suicide prevention if we had stricter gun control laws.

It would bring about a small but welcome reduction in the figures,” Dr Connolly said.

However, he did acknowledge that hanging and drowning are the most common suicide methods in Ireland. “It is extremely difficult to prevent access to those means,” he added.

His comments were backed up by Derek Chambers, research and resource officer at the National Suicide Review Group, which co-ordinates the efforts of health boards to put suicide prevention strategies in place. Mr Chambers said about 10% of all suicides, but especially among young male deaths, are gun-related.

“Suicide prevention in many countries is based around tighter gun control. Although hanging and drowning are the most common methods of suicide in Ireland, stricter control of how guns are stored would make a difference,” he said.

An average of 450 people take their own life in Ireland every year, 40% of whom are aged under 34. Mr Chambers said gun clubs do have very good codes of practice on the storage of guns, such as storing ammunition separately, but these were voluntary codes and not enshrined in legislation.

“Plans by the gardaí to insist that all guns be stored in a safe were successfully challenged in the High Court. As a result, we encourage good codes of practice on the safe storage of firearms,” Mr Chambers said.

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