Country singer Mindy McCready fatally shot herself Sunday. Her death brought attention to the role of guns in suicides. Comments from Facebook:

People should talk about the main cause of the problem: mental illness. Mindy McCready had been having problems for years.

She should never have had access to a gun. Much more than that, she should have been helped out with her various addictions and other issues.

A gun was just the vehicle that helped her get to where she was headed. If she hadn't used one, it would have been pills, a car or just about any other method.

Rob Eggleston

Suicide should be legal. Some people have deadly diseases, and pain is their partner until they die. In this case, I doubt if anyone or anything could have saved McCready. She had tried to take her life before without success. She likely used a gun because she wanted to die quickly, without any more pain.

We should be grateful she found a gun, and not blame the gun, as many do. If legally she could have had a pill to do the job, it would have been more acceptable to many people.

Bill Hart

This death focuses the debate on guns, but all kinds of things can pose a danger. People have been known to lock up the knives in a household with a member who has stabbing issues.

Family members have to put those items away if they have someone in the house who will use them to harm themselves or others. It's just common sense. Why do people have such an issue with it?

Often people don't want to kill themselves. It's a matter of impulse. Someone might want to kill herself one day, but the next day she might feel differently. That's how depression works.

Molly Jones

Yes, killing yourself with a gun is more efficient.

But that's almost an aside compared with the mental instability that is the central cause.

Greg Harvey

Letter to the editor:

This week marked yet another well-publicized death involving drugs, alcohol and suicide. Country singer Mindy McCready chose to end her pain via her own hand.

For every McCready, there are many others who do not make the headlines. Some will call McCready weak, say "celebrity" status is the culprit or even blame Dr. Drew Pinsky for not restoring her when she appeared on Celebrity Rehab. I'm not a big fan of the show, but all anyone could do was lead her to water; it was up to her to drink.

The sad truth is too many people succumb to drug addiction and alcoholism.

If only I were smart enough to have all the answers, but I don't, even though I have helped others help themselves via the path I took 17 years ago battling drug addiction. Perhaps the answer lies in highlighting not just the dead, but the living as well.

Bill Hanks; Tulsa

Bill Hanks is the author of

Serenity: It's a God Deal: Finding your way to sobriety, sanity, and serenity.