I see the miscommunication. My point wasn't "blaming latitude," my point was that our suicide rate has no connection to gun availability, as it is consistent with or lower than other similarly situated places with much tighter gun controls. Focusing on guns is a mistake.

You are correct that if people in your life are suicidal, then of course you should restrict their access to firearms, while recognizing that they can and will, if serious about killing themselves, choose the next most lethal available to them. In most places that is hanging. 

As for "suppresses research." Research on homicide and suicide was, and is, well funded at all levels of government, and privately. The CDC themselves can and do such research, as they recently did in Wilmington, Del. They are simply forbidden, rightfully, from doing research aimed not at actual solutions but created merely to support gun restrictions as national policy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/us/cdc-gun-violence-wilmington.html