I'm not sure I find much of this remarkable. According to the CDC's online database (1990-1998 - I'm to lazy to dig out the later data), suicide rates drop across all age groups. For teens, down 19%, and all age groups, 12%. So a healthy (pardon the unintentional jab) part of the teen suicide decrease could be reasonably explained by the overall drop in suicides . . . or the public's Prozac mentality.
Less remarkable is that suicides occur in only 0.005% of the teen population. Every death is sad, but this gets into the noise range. BTW, has there ever been a meaningful correlation made between the violent crime rate and the suicide rate? We saw violent crime drop in the throughout the 1990's, and I wonder if any relationship might exist. --guy-- > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Henry > Schaffer > Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 12:21 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Gun article censorship at a public health publication > > > >Lest some of you think my earlier post was fraudulent. > > I would never think such a thing - but decided to look at your > material below just to see what's happening. > > > > >*********************************************************************** > >Professor Joseph Olson Hamline University School of Law > >tel. (651) 523-2142 St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284 > >fax. (651) 523-2236 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >>>> FORWARDED MESSAGE <<< > >A BRADY LAW FOR ROPE? > >http://drkoop.com/template.asp?page=newsdetail&ap=93&id=1504295 > > > >In the last decade, suffocation -- notably hanging -- has overtaken > >firearms as the most common way for adolescents to kill themselves, > >the > >U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. > >>>> END <<< > > > >Without explanation, the DrKoop.com website censored the original > >article and quietly replaced it with one on "Obesity in Pregnancy." > > That's what I see at the above URL. > > >Apparently, the MD's at that publication really believe gun owners are > >too stupid to find the original CDC document [in a specialized MEDICAL > >publication: News release, CDC. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, > >June 11, 2004; vol 53: pp 471-474.] Not so, here it is > >http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5322a2.htm. > > There are a couple of very interesting aspects of this announcement. > > I) The has been a quite steady decline in suicide by firearm in 10-19 > year olds over the 1992-2001 decade. I.e. the *rate* (suicides per > 100,000 population per year) has gone down. > > There are many possible causes - including better firearms education, > lessened availability of firearms, and also that in the general decline > (totally approx 26% over this perios) some styles happened to go out of > favor faster than others. > > II) The mention that suffocation ("mostly hanging") has "overtaken" > firearms - is the result not just of a decrease in the firearms rate > (approx. 8.8% per year), but also of an absolute increase in the > suffocation rate (approx. 5.1% per year.) This raises the possibility > of "substitution" - but certainly no conclusions. See the disclaimer in > the Editorial note "First, because U.S. mortality data include a limited > number of variables, direct testing of whether method substitution is > occurring is not possible; however, no sizeable demographic changes in > the composition of youth suicide decedents have been documented that > might explain the changes in methods" > > >For corroboration of existence of the earlier DrKoop.com story see: > >http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=&p=youth%2C+suicide > > I couldn't find any mention of the earlier DrKoop.com story. (And a > Google search didn't help.) > > But, FWIS, I noticed that at the bottom of the DrKoop.com web page it > says, "The drkoop.com URL and web site is not associated with C. Everett > Koop, M.D., former Surgeon General of the United States." > -- > --henry schaffer > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof
