The US should think of gun control as a suicide prevention measure

The recent student-led March for Our Lives in the United States, calling for greater gun control, sought to convince the government to prioritise lives and safety in order to reduce gun violence and mass shootings, including school shootings. The demonstrators want to see universal background checks implemented for all gun sales, along with raising the federal age of gun possession to 21. 

Unfortunately, despite numerous shootings, President Donald Trump is not doing what he can to restrict access to such weapons, which would be the most effective way of preventing such tragedies.

The deadly mass shooting in Port Arthur, Australia in 1996 led the Australian government to change gun ownership laws, promoting safe storage and making it more difficult for guns to fall into the wrong hands. Since then, there have been no incidents of a similar magnitude. 

Also, research has shown that restricting access to a specific method of suicide can lead to fewer deaths. One classic example was a change in the nature of cooking gas in the United Kingdom; an effort involving a change in the packaging of paracetamol in UK led to a decrease in deaths from paracetamol poisoning.