With suicide numbers at an all-time high, stronger preventive steps are needed — including gun buybacks

The recent gun buyback event where $50,000 of firearms were purchased in the Edmondson Village Shopping Center parking lot, an effort organized by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was derided by some of this newspaper’s readers for failing to attract young people who are most inclined to settle their grievances with a firearm. That may have been the case — police on the scene described sellers as middle-aged or older — but such criticism ignores the benefits of reducing the number of guns in circulation regardless of the owner’s age and background.