Title: Household Firearm Ownership and Rates of Suicide Across the 50 United States

Publication Date: April 2007

What does it say?

This study looks at whether states with higher numbers of people who keep guns in the home have higher rates of suicide. It was found that people living in states with the highest number of guns were almost 4 (3.8) times more likely to kill themselves using a gun.

The study notes “if 1 in 10 individuals who attempted suicide with firearms in 2002 were to have attempted with drugs instead, the number of suicides in the United States would decrease by approximately 1,700 suicides per year.” This is because the vast majority of suicide attempts with guns are fatal, but comparatively few attempts with drug overdoses are fatal. The study further observes that if ready access to guns in the home were reduced suicide attempts would be less likely to result in death.

Findings are consistent with previous studies that also found that the association between rates of household gun ownership and suicide rates is highest among young people and that it is unlikely for other means of suicide to be substituted if guns are not available. Furthermore, the study found no evidence that any other variables (such as a higher proportion of mental illness amongst gun owners) were responsible for the association and notes that the reduction of ready access to guns is most likely to reduce the number of impulsive suicide fatalities.

How can I use it?

More than half of all suicides in the U.S. are carried out with guns and more than 16,000 people a year take their own lives using a gun. Reducing ready access to guns in the home would help to prevent unnecessary deaths.

Citation

Miller, Matthew, Steven Lippmann, Deborah Azrael and David Hemenway., “Household Firearm Ownership and Rates of Suicide across the 50 United States,” Journal of Trauma, 62(4) (2007): 1029-1035