But you ignored the whole actual line of argument around the guns used for defense, so you could get a little snipey comment in here.

> I'm curious about what mechanism you think explains the result that owning a gun increases the non-gun suicide rate.

Do you think that people who choose to own guns are identical to people who don't? Do you think attempts to pick a few controlling variables to try and even out the populations makes a difference? Maybe there are differences in values and personality attributes between gun owners and non-gun owners?

Seriously, everyone knows that epidemiological studies, and even case control studies suck, in large part because of just how prone they are to finding associations that are actually caused by unmeasured factors that affect multiple measured variables.

> Is this the same Ludwig and Cook that found in 2004 that handgun owners accounted for a much higher rate of suicides than long rifles? That's one of the reasons I suggest owning a 22 bolt action.

Again, handgun owners have different underlying beliefs and demographics than people who only own rifles. And if you're going to buy a weapon just for suicide, everyone knows a rifle is less convenient than a handgun and only equally effective. But-- if one were to accept your argument-- this further "exonerates" "assault rifles". ;)

I'm done with your cherrypicking of arguments and sniping at little passages. Have a nice day.