Why Is New York's Suicide Rate So Low?

Malcolm Gladwell says New York State's suicide rate has historically been half the national average because a handgun law kept for a hundred years made a handgun hard to get. Most people who try to kill themselves would take a second chance if they survived.

The law followed a famous murder in downtown Manhattan, where a prominent writer was killed by a crazed fan. The outrage was enough that New York kept the rule for a hundred years. Gladwell says the law did not really affect the homicide rate, because most homicides use illegal guns smuggled in from out of state. It did affect suicide. He calls an attempt an expressive act of self-violence: a handgun nearby makes death likely, and without one people are more likely not to try or to try a less lethal means. The same pattern showed up in England, where oven gas was highly poisonous and people used it to die at very high rates. Once the gas was given a smell or removed, the deaths dropped and then plummeted. Suicide deaths in the country outnumber homicide deaths, so Gladwell calls New York's lower rate a very big deal.

The court threw out the New York law of 100 years' standing and never once mentioned suicide. Gladwell says the fact that the law saves thousands of lives was of no interest to the court. The court cared only about a technical violation of a strange historical interpretation of the Second Amendment. He is fine if other states skip the rule, and says a liberal state like New York should be free to make a handgun hard to get.