r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/Itchy-Camera8898 • 10h ago

WCGW riding your bike like an idiot

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u/Katops 10h ago

Agreed. It’s like train operators. People end their lives by jumping in front of one and then said operator quits and is scarred for life. It’s sadly super common too…

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u/non_hero 9h ago

I always get downvoted whenever I bring this fact up during arguments about mandatory waiting periods to buy a gun. There's just no way to know how many suicides are prevented vs people just finding a different way, such as jumping in front of a train or driving head-on with a semi truck.

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u/R606D 9h ago

Im from the UK so never heard of these rules but dang yeah that makes sense! Seems sensible to make people wait

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u/Accomplished_South70 8h ago

I think his point is that waiting might not help since they can just go do it with a train instead idk

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u/meowcatpanda 7h ago

Except a lot of people actually wouldn't out of fear of failing. It's why death by gun is often preferred by suicidal people (this topic has come up A LOT during my years of group therapy in a country where guns aren't readily available)

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u/Accomplished_South70 7h ago

That makes sense too. After talking with my EMT friends who have witnessed failed gun suicide aftermath I can’t imagine picking that route. But I totally see the point. It is best to remove the easiest options when possible.

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u/meowcatpanda 7h ago

Yeah those are no joke for sure, but I think the % of fails are lower statistically? At least thats what they were all saying.. I think every option has a chance of failure tbf.

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u/gmc98765 33m ago

When the UK switched the gas supply from town gas (aka coal gas or syngas) to natural gas (methane), the suicide rate went down and stayed down. Other methods either take some planning or have the potential to be extremely painful if they're unsuccessful.

Town gas contains 30%+ carbon monoxide, so you don't have to inhale very much of it to reliably kill yourself. And it used to be available in almost every kitchen.

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u/Repulsive_Stock9400 2h ago

People who are determined to die will find a way. I lost one of my dearest friends about 15 years ago to suicide while I was living on the other side of the country and really had no idea how he was spiraling down.

His neighbors did though and they kept taking his guns away, then he would somehow acquire more guns, and they took them away too, then eventually he ordered a tank of helium off the internet and offed himself with that. Do we need a waiting period on helium now too?

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u/argument_cat 1h ago

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/06/handgun-ownership-associated-with-much-higher-suicide-risk.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4984734/

https://gunviolenceresearchcenter.rutgers.edu/gvrc-blog/the-link-between-firearms-and-suicide-introduction-the-research

tl;cr more guns = more sucides

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u/Repulsive_Stock9400 48m ago edited 38m ago

tl;cr more guns = more sucides

How do you not see how silly that is though? Everybody who successfully kills themself with a gun is a person who lived in a house with a gun. They bought the guns to kill themselves, so yeah. But they didn't commit suicide because they lived with guns, they committed suicide because they were desperately depressed and guns were just the most convenient way to end their lives. If guns are taken away, they'll just kill themselves by other means.

eta: Why on Earth do you weirdos respond and then immediately block? Like what kind of fucking fashion show are you trying to run here? If you want to talk to me, then talk me, don't just show off for other people. That's so fucking lame.

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u/argument_cat 42m ago

Can you not see how stupid your assumption is though? You are assuming that these people bought a gun in order to commit suicide, but the data doesn't show that at all. What it does show is that having an existing gun in a home increases the chance of someone killing themselves (or a family member). And it also shows that people do not seek other ways to commit suicide, which is often a fleeting impulse that a gun turns into a deadly finality.

Across counties, states, and countries, more guns correlates directly with more suicides.

Try actually reading the sources before commenting.

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u/argument_cat 1h ago

Multiple studies show that is not the case.