Gun Violence: Suicides

I've been keeping track of the rate of mass shootings lately and have noticed an increase in gun violence, but then I came across this eye-opening article and it really made me stop and re-think about an even more major issue: Suicide.

"Suicide is the leading cause of gun-related deaths across the nation in recent years. Of the 32,351 firearm deaths in 2011, nearly 20,000 were suicides." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/29/states-gun-violence_n_5541292.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular Posted: 06/29/2014

Another related article goes on to review statistics from the "Top 10 States with most Gun-Related Violence". Because I'm awesome and am more of a visual learner, I graphed and tabled the information so it's easier to read and digest.  http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/06/26/231958/2/, By Thomas C. Frohlich June 26, 2014

Here are the images of the stats I created: 

We tend to believe -especially from the news that homicides and gang activity are the highest potential gun-related problem, but if the news covered suicides the way it does violent crime, we'd see a much clearer picture of just how frequent and common suicide has become in our country. 

The article also shows that poverty and a lack of gun-regulated restrictions is a contributing factor to the amount of gun-related violence (which isn't as big of a shocker).