“I worry that the ready availability of guns contributes to the number of suicides in rural America. Nothing crushes a small town like a suicide, as nearly everyone knows the victim or a family member.”
Maybe Mr. Leonard could be enlightened by googling “youth suicide Japan” and learn that on average, 4600 youths between 10 and 21 kill themselves annually, particularly around the time when the school year is about to start and also during the high school national exam period. It is also not a particularly uncommon thing for Japanese men to come home and tragically discover that the wife has killed herself and their children. And yet, the NYT people like to lecture about how strict Japanese gun control laws are and how they are accompanied by far lower homicide rates.
Good point. I lost my father to a gun suicide. NEVER ONCE did I think about gun control. He would’ve just picked another way.