Gun deaths in South Dakota: Way more suicides than homicides

 

Graph and headline:  South Dakota Searchlight, 12/7/2025

Joshua Haiar reports:

Suicide prevention workers say the numbers underscore the need for real-life connection and safe gun storage in a state where firearm ownership is common and legal gun restrictions are minimal. [emphasis added]

Sioux Falls Police Chief John Thum cautioned against attributing the trends to a single cause, because local investigations encounter factors ranging from terminal illness to relationship struggles, chronic depression and substance use. 

But access and lethality also matter. 

“There’s a definite sense of finality to a gunshot attempt,” Thum said. “If we look at some of the other suicide attempts that we have — overdose, and some of the other ones — the level of absolutism to a firearm is there.”

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