Impact of Firearm Availability and Gun Regulation on State Suicide Rates

Abstract

Past studies on suicide have investigated the association of firearm ownership and suicide risk in the United States. The aim of the present study was to build on previous work by examining the impact of firearm storage practices and the strictness of firearm regulation on suicide rates at the state level. Data were compiled from primarily three sources. Suicide and firearm ownership information was obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Strictness of handgun regulation was derived from figures available at the Law Center to Prevent Violence, and controls were taken from the US Bureau of the Census. Mixed models were fitted to the data. Household firearm ownership was strongly associated with both suicide by all mechanisms, and firearm suicide. Storage practices had especially elevated consequences on suicide rates. Percent with loaded guns and gun readiness increased suicide rates, and strictness of gun regulation reduced suicide rates. Ready access to firearms can make a difference between life and death. Loaded and unlocked firearms within reach become risk factors for fatal outcomes from suicidal behavior. Future research might want to examine ways of obtaining more recent data on individual firearm ownership. This study proposes several policy recommendations for suicide prevention.

The Association Between Gun Ownership and Statewide Overall Suicide Rates

“…The purchase of a gun is also associated with increased risk for death by suicide across all methods—not simply suicide by firearm (Wintemute, Parham, Beaumont, Wright, & Drake, ). These points have been replicated repeatedly, including a recent study by Kposowa, Hamilton, and Wang (), which found that increased gun ownership and unsafe gun storage (particularly guns kept both loaded and unlocked) were associated with significantly elevated statewide suicide rates, even after accounting for a range of potential confounding variables.…”

Rising US Suicides: Achieving Health Equity

“…Moreover, "persons with a gun in the home were [are] more likely than others to use a gun to [die by] suicide and less likely than others to [die by] suicide by means of drug overdose, hanging, or other method other than a gun" [85]. Population (household) rates of gun ownership are strongly associated with overall suicide rates, gun suicide rates, and percentage of suicides by gun in the US ( Table 3 and Figure 3) [89][90][91], even when prescription rates of antidepressants are considered [92]. Evidence suggests that 33%-80% of suicidal acts are impulsive [93], and among individuals making nearlethal suicide attempts, 70% of those made the decision within an hour of the attempt, and 24%…”

“…We approach this topic from purely a public health perspective. Based upon the preponderance of evidence we wish to emphasize the point, as others have, that reducing access to lethal means will almost certainly save many lives that might otherwise be lost to suicide [67,90,91,95,106,111]. Reducing access to lethal means as involves firearms in particular can take many forms, ranging from individual to community to legislative initiatives.…”

Macro‐Level Research on the Effect of Firearms Prevalence on Suicide Rates: A Systematic Review and New Evidence*

“…The most commonly cited reason why higher gun prevalence would affect the total number of suicides, and not just the share committed with firearms, is the purportedly greater lethality of shooting attempts compared with that of methods likely to be substituted for shooting (e.g., Kubrin and Wadsworth, ; Kposowa, Hamilton, and Wang, ). National data, however, indicate that the incident fatality rates of shooting suicide attempts are not significantly higher than attempts by hanging, the second‐most common method of suicide in the United States (Kleck, ).…”