More gun deaths due to suicide than murders!

News Item from the Philadelphia Daily News on August 5, 2005

"Most of the people killed by guns in Pennsylvania during 2001-03 were suicides, according to a report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council and the state Health Department. Suicides accounted for 2,112 - nearly 59 percent - of the 3,588 firearm deaths in the state during the three years - far more than assaults, accidents or any other reason, the report said. In rural counties, the proportion of shooting deaths that were suicides was much higher - nearly 86 percent. In urban counties, the figure was 55 percent, the report says."

I help out as a volunteer treasurer for a small non-profit that focuses on stemming the number of suicides especially among the young. But this stat was pretty amazing to me anyway. I did know that most male suicides use a gun but did not know that suicides exceeded murders from guns.