Should Gun Suicides be Counted as Gun Violence? (Feat. Gun Lawyer Kostas Moros)

This week, we're examining the way that most gun-control groups count "gun violence."

Kostas Moros, a gun-rights lawyer, joins the show to discuss the piece he wrote for The Reload about why the decision to include gun-related suicides in those counts is misleading. He explained that the majority of gun deaths, and usually up to two-thirds of them, are suicides. He said gun-control activists' claims about the correlation between strict gun laws and lower levels of "gun violence" don't hold water without including suicides.

Moros argued states with strict gun laws often don't have lower gun murder rates or overall murder rates than their pro-gun neighbors. He cited his home state of California as a prime example of this phenomenon. Its murder rate is higher than its less restrictive neighbors to the north and only marginally better than Arizona, which has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country.

Additionally, Moros says treating gun suicides as a type of criminal violence is illogical. He argued no other forms of suicide are referred to as a kind of violence or included in violence counts for knives, rope, or anything else. 

He noted that guns are among the most deadly suicide techniques, and gun owners should do everything possible to mitigate the problem. He also noted that the absence or presence of guns at a societal level doesn't correlate to a country's suicide rate. The United States has by far the most civilian-owned firearms in the world, but our suicide rate is comparable to most other developed nations and much lower than countries like South Korea.

Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I look at the unethical way Brady United used an Aurora theater victim's family in a stunt lawsuit that left them bankrupt.

Special Guest: Kostas Moros.