Earlier that morning, Woodham had stabbed his mother to death. Wurst had just killed one teacher, wounded another and two classmates. The possibility exists that attempts to outlaw guns from schools, no matter how well meaning, may have produced perverse effects. There were 19 deaths and 97 injuries in states without the law, while there was one death and two injuries in states with the law. Motor vehicle accidents, falls, fires, drownings, poisonings, suffocation, and other accidents all accounted for more deaths than did firearm accidents.
Suicide rates fluctuate independently of gun control laws and gun ownership.
Banning guns will not affect the suicide rate - other equally deadly implements would only be substituted in their place. Only their looks have changed. They are especially valuable for physically handicapped victims. The great irony of the claim that the rifles labeled semi-automatic 'assault weapons' are uniquely destructive is that they are the only rifles that have ever been designed not to kill. In 1982, the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution evaluated the historical record, and unanimously concluded the same.