Was very common in the US in…early part of the 20th century, IIANM, but is now considered old-fashioned–like “23 skiddoo” (wth did that mean?) or “the cat’s pajamas” (what is it with cats?).

Another thing is that if you take guns out of the equation, people are kinda bad at suicide.
Often those who attempt suicide, can recover and reconstruct their lives again (note, a failed suicide remains an important risk factor for suicide).
Thing is, with guns these attempts have the tendency to be successful, and even if failing, quite debilitating.

Putting an injured deer out of it’s misery can easily be achieved -if incapacitated- by cutting the carotid artery. No hand gun needed. If still up and kicking I do not see why your hunting rifle can’t be reloaded.
Note, I’m not a hunter myself, but recognise it is there. Hunters often are quite conservationist and often have good knowledge about the ecosystems they are hunting in.
When as a youngster I spent some time in Spain, I helped the local butcher (a woman, btw) slaughtering sheep, that is how I know how fast and effective severing the carotid artery is in ungulates (in most animals I guess, including humans).
Whichever way: no actual need for hand guns. The debate about guns is, however, not about those two-shot hunting rifles. I guess there are but very few wanting to ban those.

Ironically, I think such a double barreled, hail loaded hunting rifle would be just as effective a -if not more so- ‘self-defense’ weapon as a hand gun. It is more imposing, at short distance extremely deadly, and if the aggressor flees fast enough, just some painful injuries in the bottom (if the victim still sees fit to shoot a fleeing aggressor).

I agree, and I think the type of guns available is the big difference between the US and the rest of us. Assault weapons are not available to the general public, and hand guns are almost impossible to get.

And it’s not mental health either. NZ, despite all the good things, has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It’s higher than the US. Lots of countries have higher suicide rates than the US. Therefore, the US must actually have better mental health overall. Mental Health is just an excuse. Most people with mental health issues are not a danger to other people. There is a tiny segment of people in every country who are likely to want to engage in mass killings. In the US, they can usually get hold of a gun to do that. In other countries, they often can’t and go on the rampage with a knife or something. So the kill rate is slower, the death rate is lower because of the type of injuries, and they’re stopped before they’ve done as much damage.

Good points. I would add a caveat about hunters not needing hand guns. I used to deer hunt in my youth, and usually one or two of the adults would carry a hand gun just in case they needed it to put an injured deer out of its misery. I’d add that I never saw anyone use a hand gun, so you’re probably right that they don’t really need them.

I don’t personally like the words “Trigger Warning.” In fact I really hate them and would like to add them to the banned list of phrases that irritate me. I’d rather put it another way, but those seem to be the mots de jour. I do think there needs to be a warning though. It’s not up to me to force those images on others. As I said, I was going to put them into the post, but I decided otherwise in the end.

Yes indeed, forgot the /S at the second paragraph though.
It would be great if a majority of companies, businesses, municipalities, etc. would take your comments to heart (I’m sure some, or even many, actually do, did think of it themselves).

Ominous might be the operative term, I fear, but it is unconscionable at any rate. I’m suspecting it is illegal too, maybe some legal expert can weigh in here?

I’ve seen quite some wounds, including gunshot wounds and a few high velocity gunshot wounds. The latter are kinda easy: nothing can generally be done, the victims are destroyed internally, most often dead. I do not want to sound callous, but I’m kind of immune to these images. Got enough actual tangible penetrating trauma to deal with, in the flesh, so to say, and that hits a bit harder than any pictures.
I do appreciate the intentions of trigger warnings, but I’m not a real fan, a bit in two minds about them. On the one hand you do not really want to upset people unnecessarily. However, on the other hand, real life is as it is, often not quite savoury. Trigger warnings may be a good excuse to close one’s eyes to reality.