User:Chung.esther/sandbox

'''Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?'''

Everything in the Article "Suicide Methods" was relevant to the topic. Nothing was distracting but I noticed that a lot of the words led to links to other wikipedia pages. Rather than being distracting this was nice because it provided further resources for me to look into.

What else could be improved?

Something that could be improved would be a possible warning banner that the content of the article could contain triggers for readers. It would help outline that suicide is a sensitive topic.

'''Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?'''

The article remains neutral and professional when speaking about suicide. There are no claims based on a particular position.

'''Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?'''

Not all the links lead to working links. For the links that are present they do lead to reputable sources that are relevant to the sentence's content.

'''Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?'''

Overall the article is thoroughly cited and contains reputable sources. "More firearms are involved in suicide than are involved in homicides in the United States .(missing citation)" was missing a citation but otherwise the article was fine. There are a lot of peer-reviewed journal articles listed as sources.

What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

There is talk that the article is not well balanced across all subtitles but I personally think it is hard to include more than one or two sentences for suicide by drowning, etc. Some methods of suicide are more simpler than others and have had less studies done on them. Another thing being discussed is the possibility of a warning banner for triggers to sensitive readers.

'''How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?'''

The article is rated as C-Class and also vital to society so there is a push for more editors to this article. It is part of the WikiProjects: Death/Suicide, Psychology, and Medicine.

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Suicide is rarely discussed in classes as it is still a taboo issue. In the context of class I have only ever heard it connected to suicide hotlines and prevention. I have not had a formal education relating to suicide and especially suicide methods.

A common suicide method is to use a firearm. Generally, the bullet will be aimed at point-blank range, often at the temple or, less commonly, into the mouth, under the chin or at the chest. Worldwide, firearm prevalence in suicides varies widely, depending on the acceptance and availability of firearms in a culture. The use of firearms in suicides ranges from less than 10% in Australia to 50.5% in the U.S., where it is the most common method of suicide.

Surviving a self-inflicted gunshot may result in severe chronic pain for the patient as well as reduced cognitive abilities and motor function, subdural hematoma, foreign bodies in the head, pneumocephalus and cerebrospinal fluid leaks. For temporal bone directed bullets, temporal lobe abscess, meningitis, aphasia, hemianopsia, and hemiplegia are common late intracranial complications. As many as 50% of people who survive gunshot wounds directed at the temporal bone suffer facial nerve damage, usually due to a severed nerve.

A positive association exists between firearm availability and increased suicide risk. This relationship is most strongly established in the United States. This association is almost certainly not due to confounding, as any confounding risk factor that could account for this association would have to meet multiple implausible criteria. More firearms are involved in suicide than are involved in homicides in the United States .(missing citation) Those who have recently purchased a firearm are found to be high risk for suicide within a week after their purchase.

A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences found an association between estimated household firearm ownership and gun suicide rates, though a study by two Harvard researchers did not find a statistically significant association between household firearms and gun suicide rates, except in the suicides of children aged 5–14. Another study found that gun prevalence rates were positively associated with suicide rates among people aged 15 to 24, and 65 to 84, but not among those aged 25 to 64. Case-control studies conducted in the United States have consistently shown an association between guns in the home and increased suicide risk, especially for loaded guns in the home. Numerous ecological and time series studies have also shown a positive association between gun ownership rates and suicide rates. This association tends to only exist for firearm-related and overall suicides, not for non-firearm suicides. A 2013 review found that studies consistently found a relationship between gun ownership and gun-related suicides, with few exceptions. A 2016 study found a positive association between gun ownership and both gun-related and overall suicides among men, but not among women; gun ownership was only strongly associated with gun-related suicides among women. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun, as well as a sharp overall increase in suicides among those age 75 and over. A 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis found that access to firearms was associated with a higher risk of suicide.

In the United States, states with stricter gun laws have lower overall suicide rates. A 2006 study showed that the decline in the firearm-related suicide rate in Australia accelerated after the National Firearms Agreement was enacted there. The same study found no evidence of substitution to other methods.

According to criminologist Gary Kleck, studies that try to link gun ownership to victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people. Research by economists John Lott of the U.S. and John Whitley of Australia indicates that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. In contrast, a 2004 study by Daniel Webster and his colleagues found that such laws were associated with a "modest" decline in suicide rates among youth between the ages of 14 and 17. Webster's study also noted that Lott and Whitley's study was suspect because "their use of Tobit regression to estimate the laws' effects is vulnerable to bias when data are highly skewed and heteroskedastic, as is the case for state-level data on youth suicides."

copied w/ minor edits to citations from suicide methods

Gun Legislature
The laws regulating the use, purchase, and trading of firearms are varied by state in the US. The Midwest and Southeast have the least legislature regulating firearm use and purchase where there is missing or unclear legislature on gun control and the open and concealed carrying or handguns and long guns are allowed with or without a permit depending on the state. These regions correlate with the states with the highest increases of suicide rates in the past 17 years.

There are certain areas in the United States where firearms are illegal entirely. In 1976, the District of Columbia banned the possession, sale, transfer, and purchase of handguns by civilians. Since the prohibition of handguns homicide by handguns decreased by 25% while suicides by handgun decreased by 23% in the District of Columbia. The rates of homicide and suicide in the surrounding areas where the restrictions were not applied and noted that there was no significant change in these rates.

Research Studies
A case control study conducted by Kellermann, Rivara, Somes, Reay, Francisco, Banton, Prodzinski, Fligner, and Hackman. in the locations of two counties: Shelby County, Tennessee and King County, Washington. The cases of suicide that took place in the victim’s home were recorded for both counties between August 23rd, 1987 and April 1990. The study used the cases who were deemed suicides by the medical examiners and cases with potential litigation over the cause of death were excluded from the study. Each case subject was found a proxy who was preferably a relative who lived in the same home as the case subject. The proxy was then given a matching control who lived in the same county. The variables of race, sex, and age range were controlled. Each proxy and control was interviewed on the presence of guns in their home along with questions about domestic violence, drug/ alcohol consumption, and criminal records. The study showed that 73% and 83% of at home suicides were committed with a gun in Shelby and King County respectively. This lead the study to conclude that the increased availability of firearms in the home was likely to be associated with higher rates of at home suicides.

Potential expansion of suicide methods