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Setting the Stage: National Park suicides up big

January 2nd, 2009

Suicides in national parks increased in 2008

This AP story on MSNBC.com starts with the tale of unemployed former business executive Bruce J. Colburn who shot himself to death in Glacier National Park last October. Tragic, but I was wondering why they compared 2008’s number to 2006’s and not 2007’s.

It might be because the number is only up 27% in 2008 compared to 2007, rather than 83% over 2006’s number.

Here are the numbers from the article:

  • 2004: 16
  • 2005: 18
  • 2006: 18
  • 2007: 26
  • 2008: 33

The cynic in me suspects that this will end up being part of the “guns in National Parks are bad” narrative, with the number of suicides in 2009 also being compared to 2006 and declared some sort of proof of something or other.

I’ll point out a few things today so that we can all reference them in the future:

  1. Let’s say the 27% increase for the past year is duplicated this year. That will mean about 42 national park suicides will be committed in 2009.
  2. If that happens, I predict we’ll be hearing about the 133% increase since 2006, not the 27% increase since 2008. “More than doubled” is the terminology they’ll use.
  3. The fact that Colburn’s suicide in 2008 and others before concealed carry became legal in some parks were committed with firearms will not be mentioned.
  4. Firearms suicides in national parks where concealed carry is not permitted (due to state limitations) will be included in the overall total of firearms suicides.
  5. We will only hear about the total number of firearms suicides in national parks, not the percentage change in firearms deaths from previous years. Because firearms suicides in national parks are going to be sold as a new thing.

We’ll look back at this a year from now. Hopefully, the numbers will be down.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Crime and Violence, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Setting the Stage: National Park suicides up big”

  1. Kristopher Says:
    January 2nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Exactly how does a law against carry prevent someone from committing suicide?

    Fear of being buried in a prison cemetery?

  2. Mopar Says:
    January 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    I notice out of all the examples mentioned in the article, only one specifically used a handgun. Seems like that person ignored the law against guns in national parks. Shocking.

  3. mark Says:
    January 2nd, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    I am in awe of the way the anti’s celebrate these statistics and deaths and act like it’s our fault.
    I can’t really grasp the mentality of these people – I hate and fear guns, therefor you and no one else should be able to have one.
    Except for the rich and politically well connected, who of course are special cases.

    mark

  4. bobby b Says:
    January 3rd, 2009 at 2:46 am

    Suicides up by 83% in national parks?

    Sounds like their customer service is still just like I remember it.

    (”Fires? No, sir. Never. Fishing? You needed to buy your permit nineteen days ago. In Spokane. And your tent is too close to my smoke lodge, so please move it. And, no, we don’t allow IPods. They remind us of how we’re raping and killing Mother Earth every day. That’ll be $214 for the three nights, sir.”)

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