Using a data set for the 48 contiguous states in 1980, Lester (1994) found that the suicide rate from solids & liquids was associated with longitude & with the percentage of people born in-state. The same pattern was also found for firearms & the total suicide rate. The phenomenon noted by Hewitt & Milner (1974) for suicide rates by solids & liquids is therefore not unique to that method. The specific correlates identified by Hewitt & Milner may derive from more abstract social dimensions.