Guns and Suicide

One of the data points I had overlooked prior to Newtown was that the preponderence of deaths linked to guns are suicides.  I hadn't really given that fact much thought, but it makes sense.  The statistics regarding the lethality of firearms in suicides are amazing (h/t Balloon Juice):

In the public-health community, researchers have widely come to regard it as a basic truth that access to a gun makes it more likely that someone who wants to commit suicide actually manages to do so. A big part of the reason is simply the lethality of guns: Studies show that between 85 and 90 percent of people who shoot themselves die as a result, while the percentage of people who die using other means is vastly lower. Alan Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, points out that guns, unlike other methods, leave people no time to change their minds. They also require less preparation and planning, provided they’re accessible.
“To some people, it’s just totally counterintuitive, because it’s so obvious that if you want to kill yourself, you can always find something else to kill yourself with,” said Barber. “What they assume is that once you’re suicidal, you remain suicidal.” But a preponderance of evidence, including interviews with suicide survivors, indicates that most suicidal acts come during a surprisingly short period during which the person is suffering an acute crisis.
“When you ask people who’ve made attempts and survived,” Miller said, “even attempts that are life threatening and would have proved lethal [without emergency medical care], what they say is, ‘It was an impulsive act, and I’m glad that I’m alive.’”
The central insight for public health researchers is that a lot of lives could be saved simply by making sure that people don’t have access to an extremely lethal weapon during that high-risk period. One striking illustration of this principle can be seen in the experience of the Israeli Defense Forces, which saw a 40 percent drop in suicides after a new rule was introduced forbidding soldiers from taking their guns home with them over the weekend. Though some soldiers may have tried to kill themselves using some less lethal method instead, it appears that scores of lives were saved.

40% drop in suicides for the IDF by disallowing soldiers to take their weapons home on the weekend?  That is mind-boggling.  Considering the number of suicides among veterans, that is something to keep in mind. 

Having listened to much of the gun debate in the last couple of months, I think that one fact is significant.  The presence of a gun greatly increases the likelihood of someone getting injured or killed in almost any situation.  This would tend to undermine the NRA's position that the solution for bad guys with guns is more good guys with guns.  However, that doesn't seem to be the effect.  What can you do to turn that tide?