that we’re talking about suicidal people is not irrelevant in considering that guns contribute to elevated rates of death
They may, they may not. The only people that could answer that are dead. As I said, trying to blame the tool for an action defies logic. My neighbor killed herself by OD’ing on pain meds. Her husband owned gun. Clearly the idea of going to sleep permanently was more pleasant than blowing her brains out. As somebody with a lot of guns, I’d rather take a permanent nap every time.
most people who make a suicide attempt do so within a relatively short time of the impulse to act.
Says who? How many people just say “Im gonna kill myself” totally out of the blue and then do it? Most people suffer for a long time, battle depression, have mental illness etc. Could some? Sure. But lets not pretend tons of (suicidal) people would be alive just because they didn’t have a gun, that’s insane.
t’s worth understanding that guns contribute measurably to mortality in this way.
Nobody disputes people kill themselves with guns, but to circle back, are you for prohibition because of the 1% that get drunk and kill people with their cars? Banning cars? If you only took the car, they couldn’t drive through people with them right? As said, in no other circumstance do people assign blame to the tool, they blame the person. How much comes back to all the mental health issues nobody want to discuss or do anything about? Especially with the scumbag school shooters, in almost every case they were troubled, and people KNEW it! But hush hush, don’t want to say anything until it’s too late.