It's a Good Thing He Didn't Have a Gun!

(I need to make a category out of this one.)

Gun control organizations try their best to link "gun availability" to America's suicide rate. After all, over half the annual death toll attributed to firearms is suicide. The claim is that guns make suicide easy, and that people will grab an available gun at a moment of despair and end their lives when, if the gun were not there, they wouldn't attempt or more likely would survive the attempt (guns being so lethal and all.) I've covered this before. The US suicide rate is about middle-of-the pack for industrialized nations. Nations with high gun possession rates and suicide rates higher than ours have suicide methods other than guns. Nations with low gun possession rates and suicide rates higher than ours also have suicide methods other than guns.

From the evidence available, gun availability here affects the method, but not the rate. If someone really wants to end their life, they choose an effective method - whether it's a gun, jumping off a building, leaping in front of a train, poison, hanging oneself or...

This guy:

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) - The body of a 41-year-old man was found in a wooded area next to a guillotine he built and used to kill himself, police said. The man, from the Detroit suburb of Melvindale, was discovered Monday by workers from a shopping center near his home.

Allen Park Deputy Police Chief Dale Covert said the roughly six-foot tall guillotine was bolted to a tree and included a swing arm. Covert said police also found several store receipts detailing the materials used to assemble the device.

"I can't even tell you how long it must have taken him to construct," he said. "This man obviously was very determined to end his life."

You don't say!