Year: 1990 Source: American Journal of Psychiatry, v.147, no.3, (March 1990), p.342-346 SIEC No: 19900894

The authors describe suicide rates in Toronto & Ontario & methods used in Toronto for 5 years before & after Canadian gun control legislation in 1978. They also present data from San Diego where state laws attempt to limit access to guns by certain psychiatric patients. The legislation may have led to decreased use of guns but this was apparently offset by an increase in suicide by leaping. In the case of men using guns for suicide, these data support a hypothesis of substitution of suicide method.