The Scary Reason This Man Shot Himself in the Head on Camera
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On Tuesday, LiveLeak user 'aspirine' posted a horrific video of a man shooting himself in the head playing Russian Roulette. The video, which alleges that the incident took place in Brazil, has been marked as a repost on LiveLeak, so it is unclear who the man is or when the incident occurred.
LiveLeak.com - liveleak.com
The man survived, according to Metro, and allegedly posted photos of his head injuries on LiveLeak. While Metro has not verified the authenticity of the shooting, the video nevertheless sheds light on the disturbing prevalence of self-inflicted gun wounds and suicides.
This Isn't The First Time A Failed Game of Russian Roulette Has Made News.
Russian Roulette involves loading one chamber of a revolver, spinning it, and pulling the trigger. It perhaps need not be said that it is unwise to play potentially lethal games of chance, but astoundingly, this is not the first man who has taken an unlucky spin and lived to tell to tell.
In 2013, a 20-year-old Albanian man shot himself through the head in a Russian Roulette game and took out his left eye, according to a 2014 Gawker report.
Warning: This image contains graphic violence.
Others have been less fortunate.
In July 2015, a 17-year-old in Colorado died playing Russian Roulette, according to the Daily Mail. The same month, the New York Daily News reported that 30-year-old Robert Thomas died in a Georgia after inviting friends over to drink and play Russian Roulette. According to the Daily News, Thomas allegedly insisted that his friends play with him, and said, “If y’all are going to drink my alcohol, y’all are going to play my game." The report states that they declined the invitation.
A 1987 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry looked at 19 people who died in Russian Roulette games and found that they were likely to have drugs and alcohol in their system and often had previous histories of substance abuse, but were not likely to be depressed.
Gun Suicides Outnumber Gun Homicides.
Death-by-Russian Roulette is considered suicide, not accidental death, according to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology.
Gun suicide is a major issue in the U.S. There have been more gun suicides than gun homicides in the U.S. every year since the CDC started releasing data on gun deaths in 1981, according to a 2013 Pew report. Pew notes that 19,392 people used guns to commit suicide in 2010 and 61 percent of all firearm deaths that year were suicides.
Gun regulations vary by state, and President Obama recently addressed spikes in gun violence and mass shootings with an early January executive action requiring more extensive background checks to buy weapons. While mass shootings frequently—and rightfully—make headlines, there is less conversation surrounding gun suicides and accidental self-inflicted gun deaths.
"Guns, when they are in the home, can make self-harm both easy and deadly," Margot Sanger-Katz observed in the New York Times. Sanger-Katz notes that while gun homicide numbers have flattened out since the 1980s and 1990s, gun suicides are on the rise.
New York Times/CDC - nytimes.com
The 2008 American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology study, which looked at self-inflicted gunshot wounds in Kentucky over the course of ten years, found that the majority of Russian Roulette fatalities were white men between the ages of 14 and 47, and that they were often under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
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