The method of choice, however, does have a significant effect on survivability or reversibility of a suicide attempt (pills in the medicine cabinet are a prime example, many people have been saved after taking a lethal dose of medicine) and the ease of availability also has a meaningful effect on the likelihood of suicide attempts; if people are forced to think about it some more, some of them reconsider (e.g. this very case which was a non-repeating impulse, not something premeditated). A solid example for this is the pesticide-based farmer suicides in SE Asia, where countries that limited availability of human-deadly pesticides significantly reduced the number of farmer suicides.
While there are countless other ways to commit suicide, experience shows taking away just one of the tools can save many, many lives.
>While there are countless other ways to commit suicide, experience shows taking away just one of the tools can save many, many lives.
I have found two studies with that claim. One is going state by state (like there may be no other factors?) [1]. The second is comparing urban Maryland vs rural (if you've ever been to rural Maryland, you'd know comparing it to Baltimore is ridiculous) [2].
While there are countless other ways to commit suicide, experience shows taking away just one of the tools can save many, many lives.