Coupling

There is something called “Coupling” that has to do with suicide among other things.  I always thought that if someone was going to kill themselves they would do so by any of several means.  If one measure did not work or was not available they would find another method.  Not true says the coupling thesis.  A certain number of people each year jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  Up until a few years ago, maybe two or three, there was no safety net or barrier to prevent people from jumping.  Then the authorities put up a net/barrier.  Suicides went way down.  In other words, it was the bridge suicide or no suicide.  If they could not jump off the bridge then people did not choose some other method to kill themselves.  Other methods did not increase.  This is coupling.  Now take hand guns.  A great many men kill themselves with hand guns.  Where there was an effort to take away hand guns, this form of suicide went down quite a bit.  Either some men kill themselves with a gun or not at all.  If you want more, read, “Talking to Strangers.”  I am pondering it.