Some evidence that vast majority of people who failed to kill themselves through suicide really didn't want to die

Apparently only 12 percent of those who unsuccessfully try to commit suicide end up killing themselves through suicide.  Is it possible that it is so low because they got help or treatment or because the reason that they really didn't intend to kill themselves to begin with?  I don't see any obvious measure of treatment here, but what is clear is that those who tried to kill themselves through the most "effective" means but who failed were apparently most likely to try again (this next time successfully).  That seems consistent with the choice of suicide being endogenous with whether people wanted to be successful to begin with.  A synopsis is available here:

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Method of attempted suicide as predictor of subsequent successful suicide: national long term cohort study.

Runeson B, Tidemalm D, Dahlin M, Lichtenstein P, Långström N.
Source
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Division of Psychiatry, St Göran, SE-112 81 Stockholm, Sweden. bo.runeson@ki.se

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To study the association between method of attempted suicide and risk of subsequent successful suicide.

DESIGN:

Cohort study with follow-up for 21-31 years.

SETTING:

Swedish national register linkage study.

PARTICIPANTS:

48,649 individuals admitted to hospital in 1973-82 after attempted suicide.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:

Completed suicide, 1973-2003. Multiple Cox regression modelling was conducted for each method at the index (first) attempt, with poisoning as the reference category. Relative risks were expressed as hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS:

5740 individuals (12%) committed suicide during follow-up. The risk of successful suicide varied substantially according to the method used at the index attempt. Individuals who had attempted suicide by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation had the worst prognosis. In this group, 258 (54%) men and 125 (57%) women later successfully committed suicide (hazard ratio 6.2, 95% confidence interval 5.5 to 6.9, after adjustment for age, sex, education, immigrant status, and co-occurring psychiatric morbidity), and 333 (87%) did so with a year after the index attempt. For other methods (gassing, jumping from a height, using a firearm or explosive, or drowning), risks were significantly lower than for hanging but still raised at 1.8 to 4.0. Cutting, other methods, and late effect of suicide attempt or other self inflicted harm conferred risks at levels similar to that for the reference category of poisoning (used by 84%). Most of those who successfully committed suicide used the same method as they did at the index attempt-for example, >90% for hanging in men and women.

CONCLUSION:

The method used at an unsuccessful suicide attempt predicts later completed suicide, after adjustment for sociodemographic confounding and psychiatric disorder. Intensified aftercare is warranted after suicide attempts involving hanging, drowning, firearms or explosives, jumping from a height, or gassing.

Obama administration pushes for limits on private access to guns as a way to prevent military suicides

The Obama administration position has been watered down some by Congress, but it still leaves that notion that if you can only get rid of privately owned guns by those who are at risk of suicide, you can prevent them from occurring.  The problem is that there are so many ways to commit suicide and that people will merely do it some other way.  I have a discussion on suicides in chapter 10 in More Guns, Less Crime (for a much earlier discussion on this point see here).  See this article from the New York Times:

But with suicides continuing to rise this year, senior Defense Department officials are developing a suicide prevention campaign that will encourage friends and families of potentially suicidal service members to safely store or voluntarily remove personal firearms from their homes. . . . 

The new amendment, part of the defense authorization bill for 2013 that has passed in the House of Representatives but not in the Senate, would allow mental health professionals and commanders to ask service members about their personal firearms if they have “reasonable grounds” to believe the person is at “high risk” of committing suicide or harming others. . . . 

When active duty troops who live on bases or are deployed are identified as potentially suicidal, commanders typically take away their military firearms. But commanders do not have that authority with private firearms kept off base. Instead, they would often urge potentially suicidal troops to give their guns to friends or relatives, or have them stored on base. . . .

The share of suicides with guns in DC before and after the handgun ban

Note that the ban went into effect in the beginning of 1977.

When suicide endangers others

Suppose that this guy had simply driven his car into oncoming traffic or into a wall or a tree. All good ways to kill one's self, but surely some of these ways endanger bystanders. Yet, if this guy hadn't been so obvious with a rope, his suicide would likely have been recorded as an accident. It is something to keep in mind when people talk about suicide with guns. Fox News has the story here:

In a grim attempt at revenge against his young estranged wife, a British businessman committed suicide by decapitation in his Aston Martin sports car, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported Friday.

According to the Mail, Gerald Mellin, 54, had been consumed with dark thoughts surrounding his 34-year-old wife, Mirrielle's decision to leave him.

The day before his death, a court had granted Mirielle Mellin additional alimony, the Mail reported.

Following the decision, in the last contact with his wife, Mellin sent a text message reading, "Congratulations, XXX."

The businessman then reportedly tied one end of a rope he kept in is Aston Martin convertable to a tree and then wrapped the other end of it around his neck in the driver's seat. He then drove the car at a high speed onto a busy road, forcing other drivers to witness his violent suicide, the Mail said.

Phillip Rogers, the coroner assigned to the case ruled the cause of death as decapitation.

"I'm satisfied this was a deliberate attempt by Mr. Mellin to kill himself," Rogers said.