CDC on US violence as a public health problem: suicide is the big problem

LINK this is about a survey that included about half of these deaths in the area surveyed.

I should note that this is a survey of certain states but covers all death: Not just by gun.
Box2 at the bottom lists them.

and suicide was the really big problem no one is discussing

In 2013, more than 57,000 persons died in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries (1). Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States and disproportionately affected young and middle-aged populations. It was among the top three leading causes of death for persons aged 10–34 years and among the top five for persons aged 35–54 years. American Indian/Alaska Natives were disproportionately affected by suicide; it was the second leading cause of death among those aged 10–34 years.

a smaller population was surveyed, and they noted: it's a white thing (also very bad in the Native American community).

Suicides occurred at higher rates among males, non-Hispanic whites, American Indian/Alaska Natives, persons aged 45–64 years, and males aged ≥75 years. Suicides were preceded primarily by a mental health, intimate partner, or physical health problem or a crisis during the previous or upcoming 2 weeks

 those "males over age 75" are the ones committing suicide: their depression distorts their thinking.because they don't feel life has meaning and.. They don't want folks to bother to care for them... this needs to be addressed but alas, every sympathetic pro euthanasia propaganda piece merely reinforces their "decision".




As for the young and Native Americans: Sigh. Often lack of meaning here too, and often their depression and disordered/negative thinking is increased by their drug use (self medication with illegal drugs).

and the philosophy of euthanasia purfumes the air of despair even for these kids, since it popularizes the idea that if life is miserable you should end it.

now let's get to the other part: Black lives matter?

summary:

Homicide was the 16th leading cause of death overall in the United States but disproportionately affected young people (1). It was the third leading cause of death for children aged 1–4 years and persons aged 15–34 years, the fourth leading cause for children aged 5–9 years, and the fifth leading cause for persons aged 10–14 years and 35–44 years. Homicide disproportionately affected young African American males; it was the leading cause of death among those aged 15–34 years.

and the details from the more limited study:

 The majority (66.2%) of deaths were suicides, followed by homicides (23.2%), deaths of undetermined intent (8.8%), deaths involving legal intervention (1.2%) (i.e., deaths caused by law enforcement and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force, excluding legal executions), and unintentional firearm deaths (<1%). 

yes, deaths involving legal intervention are there (1.2%). This is one percent of all violent deaths, but would be 4% of all homicides.

the table for this is here (from only the survey)

TABLE 1. Number,* percentage,† and rate§ of deaths, by incident type, manner of death, method used, and location where injury occurred — National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 states, ¶ 2013

Characteristic	No. (%)	Rate
Incident type
Suicide, single	12,487 (66.5)	13.0
Homicide, single	3,836 (20.4)	4.0
Undetermined intent, single	1,672 (8.9)	1.7
Unintentional firearm, single	125 (<1.0)	0.1
Suicide, multiple	17 (<1.0)	**
Homicide, multiple	166 (<1.0)	**
Undetermined intent, multiple	11 (<1.0)	**
Legal intervention,†† single/multiple	220 (1.2)	**
Homicide followed by suicide	225 (1.2)	**
Other combinations of deaths	6 (<1.0)	**
Total	18,765 (100)	19.5

other words, deaths from law enforcement is a very small percentage of violent deaths in the USA.

most of the deaths were arguments/fights etc.

but they note most of the "legal intervention" deaths were non Hispanic black males

 Homicide rates were higher among males and persons aged 15–44 years; rates were highest among non-Hispanic black males. Homicides primarily were precipitated by arguments and interpersonal conflicts, occurrence in conjunction with another crime, or were related to intimate partner violence (particularly for females). A known relationship between a homicide victim and a suspected perpetrator was most likely either that of an acquaintance or friend or an intimate partner. Legal intervention death rates were highest among males and persons aged 20–24 years and 30–34 years; rates were highest among non-Hispanic black males. 

table one, again at the bottom, has a lot of the details. Again, note that this is a limited survey of 17 states, not the entire country:

a shorter summary:

Manner of death
Suicide	12,747 (66.2)	13.3
Homicide	4,459 (23.2)	4.6
Undetermined intent	1,698 (8.8)	1.8
Legal intervention††	222 (1.2)	0.2
Unintentional firearm	125 (<1.0)	0.1
Total	19,251 (100)	20.1

now we get to why.

The following tables are from the survey group, and mix both suicides/ homicides/accidents in the tables.

and alcohol (66%) and meth (10%) were the most common drugs involved (I point this out because the conspiracy sites often blame anti depression medicines, often which are given to someone who is already suicidal in an attempt to treat their depression and to stop suicide.. So the anti depression meds were taken by 33 percent, but remember this included those who committed suicide. The real problem is if 66 percent of the suicidal hadn't received it... but then, of course, the homicides are in the mix too, so the question is unclear. ).

Toxicology variable	Tested	Positive
	No. (%)	No. (%)
BAC¶	11,403 (59.2)	4,289 (37.6)
Alcohol <0.08 g/dL		1,258 (29.3)
Alcohol ≥0.08 g/dL		2,910 (67.8)
Alcohol positive, level unknown		121 (2.8)
Amphetamines	6,845 (35.6)	627 (9.2)
Anticonvulsants	4,532 (23.5)	518 (11.4)
Antidepressants	5,528 (28.7)	1,836 (33.2)
Antipsychotics	4,688 (24.4)	411 (8.8)
Barbiturates	5,487 (28.5)	134 (2.4)
Benzodiazepines	6,757 (35.1)	1,959 (29.0)
Carbon monoxide	2,522 (13.1)	390 (15.5)
Cocaine	7,477 (38.8)	778 (10.4)
Marijuana	5,894 (30.6)	1,415 (24.0)
Muscle relaxants	4,556 (23.7)	337 (7.4)
Opiates	8,127 (42.2)	2,586 (31.8)
Other drugs/substances**	3,503 (18.2)	3,471 (99.1)

but note the number of people with benzodiazepam type medicine (29%) and marijuana (24%) is higher than even meth. (9.2%)

so why didn't I mention those as major causes of violent death?

One problem is both these medicines have long half life, so you don't know if the person took a dose awhile back, and just had a small amount in the system or if he actually was "high" on these that interfered with his ability to think, especially in the case of suicide, or disinhibited him to get into a situation where he or she was killed. (The Michael Brown case comes to mind: attacking a store clerk then attacking a cop).


and one doesn't know if the carbon monoxide was the means for suicide or if, again, it was interfering with their ability to think straight.

another caveat: 60 percent in the survey were tested for alcohol reported in this table. (and about sixty percent of them tested positive for alcohol).

But only about 33 percent of those in the survey group were tested for drug use, so we don't know if only those suspected of using drugs etc were tested, meaning the numbers would seem higher than if you tested everyone. So the numbers might not apply to the entire population.