Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:342-346
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Guns and suicide: possible effects of some specific legislation
CL Rich, JG Young, RC Fowler, J Wagner and NA Black
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego.
The authors describe suicide rates in Toronto and Ontario and methods used
for suicide in Toronto for 5 years before and after enactment of Canadian
gun control legislation in 1978. They also present data from San Diego,
Calif., where state laws attempt to limit access to guns by certain
psychiatric patients. Both sets of data indicate that gun control
legislation may have led to decreased use of guns by suicidal men, but the
difference was apparently offset by an increase in suicide by leaping. In
the case of men using guns for suicide, these data support a hypothesis of
substitution of suicide method.
