Gun Ownership a Cause for Suicides Being High in Utah

   Ah, I've found in a scientific journal that the availability of weapons leads to more deaths. The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, April 2007:
   "US residents of all ages and both sexes are more likely to die from suicide when they live in areas where more households contain firearms." The researchers took the states with the highest gun ownership and compared them to those with the lowest. What did they find? That twice as many suicides were committed in the states with the most guns.
   Another link, this one from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says guns are used in more suicides than homicides. It follows, then, that if the availability of a weapon is a factor, then having a lot of weapons is going to drive up the number suicides. This probably is a factor in why Utah is among the states with the highest suicide rates.

http://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2007&issue=04000&article=00031&type=abstract

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/health/17risk.html?_r=0

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=050fea9f-b064-4092-b1135c3a70de1fda