Weapons of self-destruction: screens big and small are filled with stories of people killing people, but they go blank when the topic turns to people killing themselves.

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IF YOUR VIEW OF THE WORLD IS SHAPED BY WHAT YOU SEE ON TV and at the movies, you probably think that murder is a real problem in the United States, and you would be right. The homicide rate in this country is four to five times greater than that of most European nations and remains one of the highest in the developed world.

But what you would probably never guess from watching TV or going to the movies is that suicide is a much greater problem in this country than murder.

Because we see murders and attempted murders on crime shows every night, you might not be surprised to learn that every year about 16,000 homicides are committed in this country. But you might be stunned to learn that our nation's suicide rate is about twice as high as our murder rate, and that we have more than 32,000 suicides each year. As a regular TV viewer or moviegoer, you could hardly guess that while our murder rate has dropped precipitously since the mid-1990s, our suicide rate has grown over the past five years.

And because our TV dramas and films pay so little attention to a deadly plague that takes nearly as many lives each year as car crashes, there are a couple of other things that might surprise us: the fact that more than 800,000 Americans attempt suicide each year, that suicide is the third ranking cause of death among young people in this country, that one in 12 college students has made a suicide plan, or that the suicide rate for children and young people has skyrocketed over the last half century.

ANOTHER THING WE DON'T LEARN FROM watching TV crime shows, where the murder victim nearly always seems to be a young white female, is that the vast majority of people killed by guns in this country are men who shoot themselves.

While three times more women attempt suicide than men, four times more men complete the suicides--because men are overwhelmingly more likely to use a firearm to take their lives. Pills may be the most common form of attempted suicide, but guns are the most effective. More than 52 percent of suicides in this country are committed with firearms. That is more than all the U.S. murders committed each year by any means.

While crime shows regularly introduce us to the grieving families of murder victims--who are invariably portrayed as wanting justice or vengeance--most TV viewers are never asked to spend time with the shattered relatives and friends of suicide victims--for whom police and other crime fighters can do nothing. So we would never guess that in the last quarter century nearly 5 million people in this country became survivors of suicide.

Why is it that in a country where children see about 40,000 murders and 200,000 violent acts on TV before they are 18, we are hard pressed to think of more than a few movies or any primetime network or cable drama that regularly treats this subject? A search of the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) turned up nearly 30,000 movies dealing with murder but only two dealing with suicide prevention. How is it that we have so little drama dealing with the most pervasive form of homicide in this country?

AND WHY DOES THIS SILENCE ABOUT SUICIDE extend to our political dramas as well? For nearly four decades every politician in America has promised to get tough on crime and to reduce the violence in our streets. We have put thousands more cops on the beat and built the largest prison system in the world. But can you think of a single candidate in all that time who said that America's suicide rate was too high, or that we ought to do something to prevent 32,000 people a year from killing themselves?

Perhaps it is because suicide makes us feel sad and powerless, and we turn to entertainment (and political candidates) for very different feelings. Tales about murder, rape, and assault are fine because they provoke feelings of rage and vengeance, emotions that are much more acceptable in our culture.

We like to see our heroes and politicians get angry and strap on a gun or lock people up. But we don't like to sit with grieving widows or parents paralyzed by sorrow and regret, especially if there is nobody we can punish for this pain.

In our dramatic entertainments we want to see action, to watch people get up and do things to avenge the pain or make it go away. We do not want to spend time with people who are sad enough to take their own lives, or to keep company with the shattered and grieving survivors.

BUT THE OTHER REASON for our avoidance of suicide has to do with guns. In the crime shows that we enjoy, men with guns solve the problems of murder and violence. They make the pain go away by arresting the villains or avenging the crimes.

And in our political dramas, police and soldiers with guns solve the problems of drugs, crime, and terror. No matter how big the violence, men with guns make it better.

But suicide destroys our national faith in guns, so we do not look at it. Men with guns cannot solve our growing suicide epidemic. We cannot declare a war on suicide, lock up 800,000 attempted suicides each year, or put more cops with guns on the streets to stop the spread of suicide. Indeed, a lot of men with easy access to guns is a big part of the U.S. suicide problem.

Addressing and reducing America's suicide rate will require a focus on prevention and compassion--rare and precious qualities in our culture.

If you or someone you know is worried about suicide, contact a mental health professional or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for a referral.

By PATRICK MGCORMICK, professor of Christian ethics at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.