Theheadlineon your front-page story Sunday — “Despite parents’ pleas, police closed in, and a life was lost’’ — led me to believe that the police burst in and shot the young man. In fact, they did not close in; they held back, for hours, apparently trying to communicate with him in a nonthreatening way. Suppose the police had gone off, leaving the suicidal young man in his bedroom with a loaded gun, and he shot himself anyway. Then the police would be accused of leaving a man who needed help and letting him die.

If people try to kill themselves by cutting their wrists or overdosing on pills, they can often be saved. People who shoot themselves generally die. So the real question here is: Why was this obviously troubled young man allowed to have a gun?

James J. Foley

Hingham