Mhaze

You argued that gun-related suicides were in trend decline before the Port Arthur massacre, and I agreed. So the question is whether the decline in the mid-1990s was due to government reforms or continuing the background trend. One research technique in trying to separate the effect of a particular policy or event from an underlying trend to look for a step where there is a sudden change that is more abrupt than the background trend. To do this you need as near as possible to compare data from immediately before and immediately after the event. I chose a 3-year period as that is the shortest period with the available data that compares rates before and after the reforms were implemented. As they were initiated in 1996 and completed in 1997, the best “before and after” picture we have is comparing 1998 with 1995. As the decline in gun-related suicides over that period was sharper than in any other 3-year period from 1945 to 2021, both for males and for the whole population, I conclude that it was not simply due to the background trend.

There was an unusual spike in male suicide by hanging in 1998, which was the reason the overall suicide rate was higher than in 1995, though lower than in 1997. Hanging deaths dropped back sharply in 1999 and 2000, but started trending upwards from the mid-2000s.

Looks to me like gun suicides are dropping when the Economy is good but gun related murders go up !

In many places when individual power is removed it opens the door to abuse of state power. For example the sword hunts of Japan.

According to hebrew futurologist Alvin Tofler power comes down to force, money, knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Toffler

So I suppose you can become a ruler if you have these- the more so in the proportion.

A thirteen year old boy just proved that a stolen car is just as deadly as a gun.

A 13 year old boy some magistrate had previously failed to lock up.

High time magistrates & parole boards became co defenders when they have let likely offenders out on the street.