Christopher Scanlan

In the following viewpoint, Christopher Scanlan asserts that the easy availability of guns contributes to the high rate of teen suicide. Scanlan maintains that the suicide rate of teenagers who kill themselves with firearms has increased dramatically while suicides by other means have remained the same. Teen suicide rates would drop significantly if teenagers’ access to guns was restricted, he contends. Scanlan is a reporter in the Washington bureau of Knight-Ridder News Service.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Scanlan, how many youths between the ages of ten and nineteen kill themselves with guns every year?
2. What percentage of adolescents killed themselves with firearms in 1990, according to the author?
3. What evidence does Scanlan present to support the contention that the availability of firearms increases the risk of suicide...