>Tell that to the parents of the kid in the next town who took their locked-up gun to school. IIRC, he didn't shoot anyone else, just himself.
>Tell that to parents who've taught their kids gun safety, kept their guns locked up and still lost their child to gun suicide.
>
>Not meaning to be heartless here, but parents can't control 100% of their children's actions no matter how hard they may try. I am sure that as a parent, you already know this. However, if someone is determined to kill themselves, they will find a way to do so even if there isn't a gun available. Take, for example, my father. He wanted to die so he hung himself in the garage. No gun involved in that suicide...

Agreed that someone determined to kill himself or herself will find a way, but there's a fair amount of evidence that the impulse to suicide is often fleeting and the numbers indicate that when that impulse strikes, the availability of a gun often makes the difference in whether the person survives or not.

As for controlling kids' behavior, you've made exactly my point. My job as a parent was to teach my kids right from wrong, but also to provide an environment in which they could safely make mistakes. To me, the presence of a gun in my home made the possible stakes of a mistake way too high.

Tamar