Remember, when you hear about “gun violence,” with staggering numbers, 2/3 of the numbers used by the Democrats’ gun control groups like Everytown and Americans for Responsible Solutions are suicides.
What do people without guns do, when they want to snuff it? Turns out, a firearm is not a necessity. A suicide has options from the old Sylvia Plath gas oven to Socrates’s poison to the ever popular leap into eternity from a high place.
A woman who jumped from the Interstate 95 bridge last Thursday died from her injuries and was identified as Tanya Neal, age 38.
Responders from multiple agencies were called Thursday when a witness reported seeing the woman jump from the northbound side of the I-95 bridge, which spans the Piscataqua River. Responding at 10:11 a.m. were police and firefighters from Portsmouth, Kittery and Maine State Police, said Portsmouth Fire Chief Steve Achilles. Assisting were the Coast Guard and Marine Patrol, both of which recovered the woman from the river, Achilles said.
Neal was transported by Marine Patrol and the Coast Guard to Portsmouth firefighters/EMTs who were waiting in Prescott Park, Achilles said. She was then transported by ambulance to Portsmouth Regional Hospital.
via Woman dies after jump from I-95 bridge – News – seacoastonline.com – Portsmouth, NH.
Somewhere, Shannon “40” Watts is furious that Ms Neal did not use a firearm to end her sad life, thereby depriving Watts of a statistic.
We’re grateful for the USCG and the Marine Patrol for fishing her remains out of the river. If not immediately recovered, the leapers’ carcasses wash up on the beach in my town in three weeks to a month, in a state of advanced ripeness.
Better yet, if you’re thinking about killing yourself, don’t. It might end your suffering, but it casts misery into many lives, and those good people don’t deserve to have you messing their heads up. So suck it up, Sunshine, and seek help for your depression before it gets to the bridge catwalk.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
19 thoughts on “When Guns are Outlawed, Only Outlaws will have Bridges”
> gas oven
A lot of “gas oven” stuff comes from vintage British murder mysteries. Much of Britain used “coal gas” or “wood gas” for cookstoves. Those are primarily composed of carbon monoxide, which bonds with hemoglobin.
American cooking gas is “natural gas” or propane; if you had enough of it you could suffocate, but you’d have to fill up the entire kitchen with gas until there was no breathable air left.
It worked for Sylvia Plath, didn’t it?
When USA started to pipe “city gas” for illumination and the new fangled gas stoves, it was not natural gas, but “producer gas”made by blowing steam over red hot coke. Process converted the H2O (water, as steam) and C (carbon, as coke) to CO (Carbon monoxide) and H2 (straight Hydrogen). Hence the article in James Beard’s “The American Boy’s Handy Book” telling us how to blow floating soap bubbles from the gas light emmiter in the parlor. (Carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air, Hydrogen- Well, you already knew).
It killed the suicidal as well as the British version. Natural gas from wells came on the scene MUCH later.
In London.
Sometimes a Great Notion (the book) has a hilarious description of a fellow deciding to end it all via gas stove and then lighting a last cigarette with predictable results.
I have some French guests, and I wanted to take them shooting. Their English is basic, and I want them to fully understand the firearms safety rules before we pick up any guns. Does anyone know where I could find a translation? My searches just turn up articles about French gun laws.
C’est ici, mon ami:
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/safe_sur/acts-tpto-fra.htm
The Canadian rules are available in English and French, naturally, on the Mounties’ site.
Many thanks!
The one that’s missing on that site is “Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.” But you can probably take care of that for your guests.
Bien fait on giving foreigners exposure to some of our American peculiarities. It may be that they need knowledge of such things sooner rather than later. Tell them “Faites attention.”
-John M.
1. This repays your hour and a half:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWVHNQuYns
2. Changing the gas changed the suicides-
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5959303/why-have-people-stopped-committing-suicide-with-gas
I’m not planning on doing myself in, but if I were I sure wouldn’t do it by jumping off a high place. Too many opportunities for a change of heart on the way down.
Watch the movie, they get around to chatting with survivors.
I responded to many, many suicides.
When you tell them not to, but to seek help I am reminded of a friend from my cub scout days who made several unsuccessful attempts.
He later married, had kids, then kidnapped, molested, and dismembered the teen-age girl next door.
Too bad he wasn’t sucessfull in high school.
Some suicides know best.
I have recovered drowning suicides and train suicides.
I much prefer the drowning suicides.
Either way its a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Japan is appropriately infamous for its high suicide rate. Many Americans believe that jumping off buildings or in front of trains is the favorite Japanese suicide method. But the most common method is actually suicide by hanging.
Apparently “rope violence” is twice the problem in Japan that “gun violence” is in America!
Our city is going through a bit of a tremor concerning new anti-jumper barricades installed on our High Level Bridge. (160 to 210 ft above river level)
It has been a common exit for some of the city’s depressed. The local police responded to over fifty incidents in total last year leading to the politicians to request new barriers.
They succeeded in making it more difficult to jump whilst narrowing the foot and bike path to half its former width.
It’s been fun watching the local greens try to be both compassionate and p.o.d at the same time.
Several weeks ago a subject drove down the dirt road next to our property. He stopped the car, took out a rope, tied one end around a tree trunk, the other around his neck. He then re-entered his car and sped off. Subjects head was just about severed when found an hour later.
Heck, aren’t you retired from both jobs now… and dead guys still dropping all around you? (I recognized email address. Good to hear from you).