Re: 'Murica never ceases...
"I'd also like to see suicide removed form the stats "
Why? People with access to pistols commit suicide at a much higher rate than those that don't (eg vets in the UK). It's the same way that people with swimming pools drown more often (and a swimming pool is more likely to kill a child than a gun in the same house), there is a clear correlation.
I'm fairly sure that gun owners aren't any more suicidal than the rest of the population, it's just an extremely easy way to top yourself. Still doesn't change that roughly two thirds of firearm fatalities are self inflicted.
As far as recording a verdict of suicide, there are a variety of reasons why a coroner might record accidental death from self inflicted injuries rather than suicide. If there is a clear pattern of someone winding up their life, putting their affairs in order, leaving a note and doing it, then probably. But the stigma and shame attached to it, and the guilt those left behind feel, may make it easier to lay the blame as an accident.
Plus accidents with firearms happen, so splitting up the cases is tricky.
The only people who are doing much study of it seem to be the military, since 22 veterans take their own lives each day. Often with a gun.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
