Canada's gun control changes and suicide

C. D. Tavares writes:

Go check out the effect of your lovely gun controls on your suicide
rate. Suicide by gun went down. Suicide by other means went up
precisely enough to compensate.

Not true. See Am J Psychiatry 151:4 606-608 (1994).

Abstract:
" To assess the impact of the 1978 Canadian gun control law on suicide
rates in Ontario, the authors compared firearm and non-firearm suicide
rates for 1965-1977 with those for 1979-1989. There was a decrease in
level and trend over time of firearm and total suicide rates and no
indication of substitution of other methods. These decreases may be
only partly due to the legislation."

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