Missourian-
I don't see the relevance of that, really, because it introduces too many other variables. Research conducted by Harvard has established that because suicide attempts using firearms is more effective than with, for instance, drugs or razor blades; the availability of firearms is a factor in the overall suicide rate.
Hence, reducing the number of firearms does reduce the number of suicides in households that havehad access to weapons, but I totally agree that this does not mean the overall suicide rate necessarily drops.
But if the overall suicide rate doesn't drop...what has been accomplished?
Nothing.
Those people still killed themselves. Even though they didn't have access to a gun.
If guns were the problem, when they were removed, the suicide rate show have dropped.
It didn't...it actually increased. They just switched methods to hanging or leaping, which is equally lethal.
You cannot protect people from themselves.
That is why I dismiss suicide prevention as a motivation for gun control.
The evidence is against it.