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.Abstract Teaser