this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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People always say it's about metal problems and not guns. And that might be true, but will you Americans ever try and fix that? Maybe by reducing healthcare prices or something.
So far it seems like the answer is: No, we won't do anything about it.
At very least it makes sense to force parents to keep their guns locked away from their children and everyone else.
No-one under 18 should ever be allowed non supervised access to weapons and everyone over should have to take a mandatory safety and usage course and of course a comprehensive background check.
These are all things having little to do with suicide: Japan completely disarmed everyone outside of government in the 90's, and they have better access to healthcare than Americans, but suicide rates only grew. Attention needs to be on root causes, like the explosive rise in loneliness and identifying how to repair some of the social changes brought on by a complete paradigm shift to how humans share information and interact with one another.
Japan's suicide rate remains substantially lower than America's suicide rate (particularly with respect to men) according to WHO data. this is particularly noteworthy because of Japanese cultural attitudes toward suicide (seen as morally neutral or honorable in certain circumstances, rather than consistently reprehensible as in America). it would imply the disarming you're talking about is putting a significant damper on the rate.
Hot damn, BUT I question American face values specifically because it's conflating a second epidemic: overdoses are often recorded as suicide when it's not a clear accident like a medical interaction with prescriptions - it's up to the coroner.
Over working people will do that even if you adequate social policy
In america daddies drive us like it is 1855 SouthCarolina plantation...
Then everyone pukachu face when we have ton of negative externalities, of which suicide is just one.
Before people jump these kids don't work.... Their parents do and precarious economic situation with lack of emotional and parental support destroys child's feeling of self worth.
But no problem we got alpha daddy thought leader to teach them how to be men...
OG capitalist solution that's working very well!
Totally inaccurate for mental healthcare. No insurance covers psychology or counseling. Psychiatry is covered to a degree but is a check and pills which, alone, is not helpful in most cases.
Access is about more than billing.
In the US you need to wait multiple months to see a specialist, about 9 where i live as a new patient, and/or pay massively out of pocket for a private specialist ( $300-1000 per session).
Your other option is to say you're thinking of killing yourself, but this is a direct route to involuntary care which red-flags you and gets your guns confiscated with virtually no hope of having your rights restored, as well as a record that gets in the way of getting a new job, housing, etc.
So, if you're the average depressed person, have zero friends and have non-zero guns, you're kind of on an island.
We have long waits her, too, generally. It's also still quite expensive here. If you don't speak fluent japanese, also be prepared to spend a lot (my therapy was the same as my monthly rent, over 100k yen), but that's a non-issue for most people in Japan