Why do people put pistols in their mouth to kill themselves?
I’m remembering a scene from Fight Club and Possessor where the main characters put pistols in their mouth in an attempt to “kill themselves” (plus other movies I’ve seen).
In Fight Club, Tyler misses (I guess on purpose), and in Possessor, the main character needs to do it after completing a contract (to leave the body she possessed).
In Possessor, the angle suggests she might miss her brain entirely.
I can understand something like a shotgun; it’s not exactly something you can hold to your temple, but why put a pistol in your mouth?
Is it more effective somehow? Does it hit a part of your brain where firing from the side might otherwise leave you alive, yet disabled?
I’m sure you could argue it’s just more dramatic from a movie critic perspective, but I’m sure people have really done this, and it maybe be a case of art imitating life, but I believe it would be the other way around.
Shotgun physics get complicated. I remember hearing a case where the gas in front of the slug (or shot or whatever) propelled the shotgun out of the victim’s mouth, and the shot ended up skimming off their face.
Leaving them disfigured but very much alive.
In any case, suicide is largely an emotional thing rather than logical. Don’t read too much into it.
But if you’re up for a dark laugh on the topic of conscientious suicide, consider https://youtu.be/snjCj0ntG8E?si=8omBU_VZA_MqL-Lp
Also to add, look up suicide stats in England after coal gas was replaced with natural gas. Suddenly, poison gas was less available. Not only did gas related suicides drop, all suicides drop.
No way to prove causation, but for a lot of people, the decision to kill yourself depends a lot on convenience. There isn’t a lot of planning involved.
Many suicides being opportunistic is why a small barrier or a sign added to a bridge or railway can prevent a lot of suicides. Most suicides aren’t really well thought out, they happen because the victim happens to see an opportunity right at the wrong time. Making them walk around a barrier can be enough to dissuade them from trying (that day, at that spot).
It’s no wonder so many Americans kill themselves using guns. They’re deadly, death is instant when done right with no suffering, and they’re accepted to have laying around. Knives and pills will also do the job but they’re not as quick and easy, and often become quite gruesome and painful ways to go if not stopped in time. That said, preferred methods of suicide are different for different groups of people, for instance with men typically choosing a rather violent yet effective methods while women typically choose less violent (but easier to survive) methods.
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Pills in blister packs instead of a bottle also reduces suicides. Just having to open a bunch of pill blisters instead of downing a bottle makes a noticeable difference.
There was an occasional reddit repost that I remember seeing a few times about a guy who invented a “suicide helmet” specifically to avoid the prospect of botching his own planned attempt. It basically was a bunch of shotgun shells wired up to a detonator and fused into a hardhat. The level of planning and makeshift engineering that went into it was astounding, and the dude explained it all in his suicide note. It worked. On one hand I can see how someone who is determined to die but afraid of pain would want to make sure the process was instantaneous and extremely lethal, on the other hand, it’s fucked up to think about how much the guy must have dwelt on the idea of killing himself, knowing it wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment opportunity where he shoved a gun in his mouth like most people would have done.
Wow that case you mention is fucked.
I can’t imagine life after blowing my face off, on top of whatever made things bad enough to go that far.