Hey there, before we get started, a heads up that in this episode we talk about suicide and gun violence.

Just wanted you to know that going in.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Maddie Sifaya here with Science Correspondent Nell Greenfield Boys.

Hello.

So, no. Today we're talking about what it means that the Centers for Disease Control,

arguably the nation's top public health agency, doesn't like to talk about guns.

This is something you started looking at last year after a big new CDC report came out.

That's right. It's a report on suicide in the United States. Specifically, it was a report

from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it showed that suicide rates had been rising

in nearly every state.

The CDC put out an alarming report today on suicide.

So, this was a big deal. Half of the country has seen a more than 30 percent increase.

It got a lot of press coverage.

It is an epidemic and it does not hold back.

And when I was covering it, I noticed something that seemed a little odd to me,

which is just that guns were barely mentioned in the report.

Okay, for reasons we'll get into, talking about gun violence is a tricky thing at the CDC.

But it seemed weird to Nell that a big official government report on suicide,

barely even mentioned the most common way that suicides occur.

All right, are you there?

Yes, I'm here.

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