ABSTRACT
Arguments in favor of strict gun control typically place far more stress on anticipated reductions in homicide than on suicide. Access to a gun is obviously a logical prerequisite to use of a gun in suicide, so it is important to understand why and how suicides acquire guns. For all United States deaths officially registered in the vital statistics system as gun suicides in 1993, information on the type of gun was known for 6676. Gun control opponents argue that the majority of suicide attempters who use guns are determined, at least at that moment, to kill themselves. Some researchers have directly measured the relationship between gun availability and suicide rates across macrolevel units like nations, states, or cities. Temporarily serious attempters who otherwise would have used guns would, if unable to get a gun, substitute other methods, some of which are about as lethal as guns.
