Being from Montana, the statistic regarding suicide via firearm doesn’t surprise me... most everyone has a gun of some sort, and being such a widespread and rural state with the lack of a widespread mental health support system leads to a lot of sad and depressed people. I’ve had several friends commit suicide via firearm. Just how it is, sad to say. Mental health needs to be taken more seriously and have better options provided. All there is to it.
Edit: for example, I was born and raised in Helena, and to get to another big town, it’s at least an hour drive either way. After that, it’s at least four. In the town I lived for three and a half years, we had a population of 200 people. The next town over was a half hour away, and didn’t have but maybe 1500 people I’m guessing. It took an hour of driving on the interstate either to the east or west just to get groceries, one way. Hell, the county I lived in only had 1,000 people give or take. Montana is huge, towns are incredibly small. Glasgow, Montana has even been dubbed the middle of nowhere because of how far away it is from any big town, the furthest from any other town in the USA.
A couple other ways that would I think provide more insight into this data is comparing % of the population in poverty or some other similar economic metric, along with the suicide rate of other means. Someone else keenly pointed out that suicide by structure or train in NYC is pretty common, but you probably aren't jumping off a skyscraper in Montana.
![image showing Gun deaths from homicide vs. suicide in US states, 2017 [OC]](8241e59a-9352-58e6-a695-5a5d4c133682.jpg)
FirstGenRanchHand on November 21st, 2019 at 14:37 UTC »
Being from Montana, the statistic regarding suicide via firearm doesn’t surprise me... most everyone has a gun of some sort, and being such a widespread and rural state with the lack of a widespread mental health support system leads to a lot of sad and depressed people. I’ve had several friends commit suicide via firearm. Just how it is, sad to say. Mental health needs to be taken more seriously and have better options provided. All there is to it.
Edit: for example, I was born and raised in Helena, and to get to another big town, it’s at least an hour drive either way. After that, it’s at least four. In the town I lived for three and a half years, we had a population of 200 people. The next town over was a half hour away, and didn’t have but maybe 1500 people I’m guessing. It took an hour of driving on the interstate either to the east or west just to get groceries, one way. Hell, the county I lived in only had 1,000 people give or take. Montana is huge, towns are incredibly small. Glasgow, Montana has even been dubbed the middle of nowhere because of how far away it is from any big town, the furthest from any other town in the USA.
Exxis_1ARM on November 21st, 2019 at 16:54 UTC »
As a Marylander I was surpised to see us so high on the list.. but then I remembered that Baltimore exists :/
transientcat on November 21st, 2019 at 17:28 UTC »
A couple other ways that would I think provide more insight into this data is comparing % of the population in poverty or some other similar economic metric, along with the suicide rate of other means. Someone else keenly pointed out that suicide by structure or train in NYC is pretty common, but you probably aren't jumping off a skyscraper in Montana.