that a suicide is a person, not an action

It's both, JazzO. This from the M-W Collegiate Dictionary:

Main Entry: 1 sui.cide
Pronunciation: 'sü-&-"sId
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin sui (general) of oneself + English -cide; akin to Old English & Old High German sIn his, Latin suus one's own, sed, se without, Sanskrit sva oneself, one's own
Date: 1643
1 a : the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind b : ruin of one's own interests
2 : one that commits or attempts suicide

This only discusses the noun form of the word, there's also the verb. Funnily enough the other references to suicide in that dictionary are all to do with sport ... "suicide squad" for what you USns call 'football' (which I'm sure would also have war slang type usage) and "suicide squeeze" from baseball.

Hev