http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/opinion/suicide-prevention.html 2016-09-05 09:43:57 Suicide Prevention The vigilance of others and gun ownership are crucial elements, readers say. === To the Editor: I applaud the urgent desire expressed by people interviewed in “ In writing about the suicide of a young Rhodes scholar in my book “The Future Tense of Joy,” I learned that the greatest deterrent is the willingness to acknowledge that someone you love is in trouble and the readiness to reach out and help. “When people say they want to kill themselves, they mean it,” the brother of my subject observed. “You have to believe them.” Such vigilance, in the face of a pain sometimes too overwhelming to comprehend, would surely save more lives than any bridge barrier. JESSICA TEICH Pacific Palisades, Calif. To the Editor: Your article discusses the relatively small number of people who kill themselves by jumping off bridges, without ever mentioning that some 20,000 suicides annually — more than half of the total — are Gun suicide attempts are LINDA IMHAUSER Whitestone, Queens