SUICIDE In 1999, for the first time, the Surgeon General issued a Call To Action To Prevent Suicide, defining it as a public health hazard. In public interviews he noted how in 1998 for every two homicides in the U.S. there were three suicides. Since 1952, the incidence for adolescents and young adults has nearly tripled, and 90% of these cases were due to guns. Each day 86 Americans take ...