The Firearm Suicide Crisis: Physicians Can Make a Difference

Abstract

Firearm suicide receives relatively little public attention in the United States, however, the United States is in the midst of a firearm suicide crisis. Most suicides are completed using a firearm. The age-adjusted firearm suicide rate increased 22.6% from 2005 to 2017, and globally the US firearm suicide rate is 8 times higher than the average firearm suicide rate of 22 other developed countries. The debate over how to solve the firearm suicide epidemic tends to focus on reducing the firearm supply or increasing access to behavioral health treatment. Ineffectual federal firearm control policies and inadequate behavioral health treatment access has heightened the need for primary care physicians to play a more meaningful role in firearm suicide prevention. We offer suggestions for how individual physicians and the collective medical community can take action to reduce mortality arising from firearm suicide and firearm deaths.

Examining the policy effects of Arizona’s 2016 pre-emption law on firearm suicide rates in the greater Tucson area: an observational study

“…Federal firearm safety and control reforms are controversial and difficult to enact and enforce, making state governments responsible for most firearm policymaking. 8 Frequently, in the USA, policies are enacted to curb homicide after incidents of highly publicised mass shootings, even though most firearm mortality is attributable to suicide. 1 9 Even so, these policy changes often have implications for firearm suicide through the mechanism of supply or access restriction.…”