Freedom, by definition, includes the freedom to be stupid[1]. This is kind of the point of having a <i>free society</i>; the people that do helpful things that you approve of don&#x27;t need to have their activities protected by law and constitution. It&#x27;s the people that do things you <i>don&#x27;t</i> approve of that need those protections.<p>To test if people are actually free, you study how the unpopular people and unwelcome ideas are handled. If they are restricted &quot;for their own good&quot;, then any claim of being &quot;free&quot; are jut marketing.<p>The solution is better education and more communication (and better healthcare, including a lot more funding&#x2F;availability for mental health services). Going after guns doesn&#x27;t address the actual problem.<p>Oh, and &quot;take some pills&quot;? That really depends. You may survive, but hours of hypoxia from an overdose of respiratory depressants can be incredibly damaging, especially to the brain. If the overdose wasn&#x27;t strong enough to cause that kind of damage, it may not even be a fatal dose. There is going to be a lot of variation, and &quot;backing out&quot; only apples some of the time.<p>[1] As someone who strongly supports the <i>right to die</i>, suicide is a complicated subject, and is <i>not</i> &quot;stupid&quot; in some cases. However, for the purposes of this thread, that is really off-topic. The &quot;stupid&quot; subset certainly exists and they would be the people who would benefit form the &quot;backing out&quot; you mention.