Firearms and suicides in US states

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between firearm prevalence and suicide in a sample of all U.S. states over the years [2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009]. We find strong, positive effects of gun prevalence on suicide using OLS estimation, across a variety of measures for gun possession, and with several sets of controls. When using instrumental variable estimation, the effect remains significant, despite also finding significant evidence that gun ownership causes substitution towards gun-suicide rather than other methods of suicide. There is also evidence for nonlinearities in the effects of guns on suicide.JEL Classifications: I12, I19, K10

Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gun: The Effect of Mandatory Handgun Purchase Delays on Homicide and Suicide

“…While handgun delay policies may alter the purchase of legitimate firearms, around 80% of criminal offenders report obtaining firearms through secondary or illegal markets (Ross et al, 2012). One concern may be a substitution effect between firearm suicides and non-firearm suicides (Briggs and Tabarrok, 2014). This null finding holds when using firearm homicide data from the Uniform Crime Report, and when restricting the universe of firearm homicides to those committed by an 'intimate partner '.…”

“…In addition to the body of research that shows an association between gun prevalence and suicides (Lang, 2013;Miller et al, 2013;Phillips, 2013;Anglemyer et al, 2014;Briggs and Tabarrok, 2014), there are three stylised facts that have emerged from the firearm-related suicide literature that establish the mechanism through which purchase delays may affect suicides. In addition to the body of research that shows an association between gun prevalence and suicides (Lang, 2013;Miller et al, 2013;Phillips, 2013;Anglemyer et al, 2014;Briggs and Tabarrok, 2014), there are three stylised facts that have emerged from the firearm-related suicide literature that establish the mechanism through which purchase delays may affect suicides.…”

“…In the US, however, this is complicated greatly by the lack of an accurate measure of gun availability. Other studies attempt to proxy for changes in gun availability by examining the number of federal background checks (Lang, 2013), constructing an index of gun-related items (Briggs and Tabarrok, 2014), examining subscriptions to gun-related magazines (Duggan, 2001), examining the local effect of gun shows (Duggan et al, 2010) and exploiting the surge in purchases around the 2008 presidential election (Depetris-Chauvin, 2015). Additionally, there is a large stock of guns in the US, and with minimal maintenance, guns can function for many years.…”

Trends in firearm background check applications and denials

“…A more focused examination of this literature produces only three studies that have examined the utility of background check applications as a metric of firearm prevalence. Briggs and Tabarrok () created a composite index consisting of the proportion of the percent of suicides by gun, accidental firearm death, and firearm background check rate. This composite index significantly predicted firearm suicide, but not as well as the percent of suicides by gun alone.…”

“…Some initial research is available to support this supposition. There may be a near one‐to‐one ratio of background check applications to firearm purchases (Brayer, ; Briggs & Tabarrok, ). Mueller et al .…”