[mbillie1]

Well, in answer to 1., often suicide is attempted at times of extreme emotional volatility - in other words, when it's easy to make a mistake. Additionally, suicide is almost always linked to depression, which manifests itself in a whole host of ways. It's easy to say "just point a gun at your head and shoot, what's so hard about that?" Well it's terrifying, which is emotional. It costs money to acquire a gun, and money problems are highly associated with depression. It's a social activity, and social anxiety often is related to suicidal behavior, etc.

If it were a decision like "which toothpaste works better", and you could calmly evaluate evidence and act impartially, I imagine there would be fewer suicide attempts, fewer suicides, and a higher percentage of attempts would succeed. But this is a vastly different sort of thing, an intrinsically uninstinctual act. This is just speculation, but I would guess that the rare cases where the suicidal person is overwhelmingly justified by his or her decision (Goering killing himself painlessly rather than being tried and hanged), the success rate improves.

In response to 2., I have no idea - that is an empirical question. But it's an interesting question, and it's good to see the topic discussed in the media as it generally is quite taboo.