{"id":366687,"date":"2018-06-25T10:05:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T09:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-domestic-consequences-of-foreign-policies-consortiumnews\/"},"modified":"2018-06-25T10:05:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T09:05:48","slug":"the-domestic-consequences-of-foreign-policies-consortiumnews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-domestic-consequences-of-foreign-policies-consortiumnews\/","title":{"rendered":"The Domestic Consequences of Foreign Policies \u2013 Consortiumnews"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There is a direct connection between gun violence and suicide rates in the United States and America\u2019s aggressive foreign policy, argues Will Porter.
<\/p>\n

How America\u2019s Gun Violence Epidemic May Have Roots in Overseas War Zones<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

By Will<\/b> Porter<\/span><\/strong>
Special to Consortium News<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Contrary to the notion that mass murderers are at the heart of America\u2019s gun violence problem, data from recent years reveals that the majority of gun deaths are self-inflicted.
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, suicides accounted for <\/span><\/span>over 60 percent of gun deaths<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the U.S., while homicides made up around 36 percent of that year\u2019s total. Guns are consistently the <\/span><\/span>most common method<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by which people take their own lives.
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the causes of America\u2019s suicide-driven gun epidemic are complex and myriad, it\u2019s clear that one group contributes to the statistics above all others: military veterans. <\/span><\/span>
<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the Physical
<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to a <\/span><\/span>2016 study<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, on average some 20 veterans commit suicide every single day, making them among the most prone to take their own lives compared to people working in other professions. Though they comprise under 9 percent of the American population, veterans <\/span><\/span>accounted for 18 percent of suicides<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. in 2014.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When veterans return home from chaotic war zones, resuming normal civilian life can present major difficulties. The stresses of wartime create a long-term, sustained \u201cfight-or-flight\u201d response, not only producing physical symptoms such as sweating, shaking or a racing heart rate, but inflicting a mental and moral toll as well.
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) accounts for some of the physiological effects of trauma, the \u201cfight-or-flight\u201d response, but the distinct mental, moral and spiritual anguish experienced by many veterans and other victims of trauma has been termed \u201c<\/span><\/span>moral injury<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u201d
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A better understanding of that…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a direct connection between gun violence and suicide rates in the United States and America\u2019s aggressive foreign policy, argues Will Porter. How America\u2019s Gun Violence Epidemic May Have Roots in Overseas War Zones By Will PorterSpecial to Consortium News In recent months a string of school shootings in the United States has rekindled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-366687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}