To the editor:

Tragic and increasingly frequent as they are, mass shootings represent only a tiny fraction of the 33,000 or so gun deaths that occur in the United States each year. The majority of these deaths are acts of suicide. A gun is a very lethal choice in carrying out what usually is an ambivalent act.

Radically reducing the number of guns in homes surely would reduce gun deaths by suicide, but that currently is a political impossibility. We live in a culture of violence. This can be observed from college campuses to movies and video games to presidential candidates who blithely suggest bombing or invading other countries as reasonable foreign policy. The person who decides to act out his hopelessness or anger or distorted resentment at himself or others has ready violent models on which to base his action.   

Most commentators, including the NRA, suggest mental health treatment as a means to prevent gun violence, but I have not seen a significant improvement in public funding of mental health treatment, which has been seriously reduced over the last decade or so. This affects our own community. Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center provides most services at no or reduced cost for people with limited incomes. Individual psychotherapy, however, is more expensive to provide and generally no longer can be done on a sliding fee scale. Group therapy can be equally effective, but many people simply will not accept it but also cannot afford individual therapy. Expanding Medicaid would help make needed treatment more available.