Guns Don’t Kill, etc.

The article about suicide in rural Oregon is interesting but reads more like an anti-gun article than a serious piece about suicide.

Historically, older men commit suicide due to health or financial problems. What is there to suggest that has changed? While access to a firearm might occasionally contribute to a more spontaneous act, the mere presence of a firearm would hardly be the proximate cause of suicide.

No one commits suicide just because they have a gun in the house, any more than a person would intentionally drive off the road into a tree just because they own a car.   

Loneliness is extremely destructive, but social isolation, whether urban or rural, is almost always self-imposed. If clinical depression is a factor, that is a community health issue which also requires the active involvement of the patient.

Neither has anything to do with guns. 

Greg Williams

Noti