guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people

A second article, also from this morning's New York Times, and obviously planned several days earlier, appearing in today's Science section but shedding further light on the front page story about the shootings at Virginia Tech. The headline is "Availability of Guns Raises Suicide Rates, Study Finds."

"People who live in communities with a lot of guns are more likely to kill themselves, a new study says."

The shootings at Virgina Tech was essentially a suicide, by a depressed and angry loner, determined to have company in his self-destruction.

"In the new report, in the current issue of The Journal of Trauma, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health said they had found evidence that 'the ready availability of firearms is likely to have the greatest effect on suicide rates in groups characterized by more impulsive behavior.'"

Although determined suicides can simply switch to a different method, guns are the most deadly, and the most immediate, meaning that folks who don't have access to guns have a better chance of delaying action until they feel better, or being unsuccessful in their attempt. And, of course, in the case of the Virginia Tech shooter, without a gun he wouldn't have been able to kill others as part of his own suicide.