>> The increased risk of suicide ...
Putting aside the extreme quack attributes and bad-science of Wintemute (who is almost exclusively funded by HCI), wouldn't you agree that this is backwards? People who are suicidal, especially women (who are typically drawn to the use of a gun in suicide because it's not likely to fail), often buy guns to do the deed. That supports my earlier point! Guns aren't difficult to get in the US if you want to kill yourself. And waiting periods don't deter suicide with a gun. They go make the purchase, come back in 15 days, and in the first week kill themselves.
So? Are you saying guns *cause* suicide? Right, I knew you weren't.
But of course Wintemute *is* saying that.
I wish they'd do the same study in Canada or England; I bet they'd find that the "increased risk of suicide" among those who buy razor blades and knives is higher than the general public ...
I appreciated the editorial; they dismiss Wintemute's silly cause-and-effect reversal and at least they mention things like only 10% of gun suicides (so about 1700/year but who is counting?) are done with guns purchased for the task -- doesn't the act of going to a store to pay several hundred dollars and wait up to two weeks show extreme desperation?
But they still stress "This possibility challenges us to find a way to prevent such purchasers of handguns from committing suicide."
I'm all for it. It's just unlikely that prohibiting private ownership of firearms would have anything at all to do with it. The response to Wintemute's "research" has been to try to look at the effect of waiting periods on (the failure of) self-defense, especially against women in spousal/girlfriend killings. ATF/FBI say that a gun is the only effective weapon for self-defense, defined as the possibility for successful defense goes up with the use of a gun, as opposed to going down with the use of a knife, etc.
Since if these 1700 people are willing to wait 10 or 15 days to get their gun, what about people who fear for their life and can't get a gun for protection in that same amount of time. Things are starting to look up (like allowing those who have initiated protective restraining orders to bypass the waiting periods) in this area, but it's not all that encouraging.
/jordan