Firearm Ownership and Suicide

The authors of a state-by-state analysis “found a strong relationship between state-level firearm ownership and firearm suicide rates among both genders, and a relationship between firearm ownership and suicides by any means among male, but not female, individuals.” Based on data from 1981 to 2013, the analysis revealed that each 10 percentage point increase in firearm ownership was associated with a 3.1/100,000 increase in the male suicide rate, a 1.9/100,000 increase in the overall suicide rate, and a 0.4/100,000 increase in the suicide rate for females.

The analysis controlled for state-level variables, including region, population density, education, alcohol consumption, divorce rates, violent and nonviolent crime rates, and a number of variables related to income. Other characteristics associated with higher suicide rates included “West region, higher alcohol consumption, higher divorce rate, higher violent crime rate, lower population density, and lower per capita gross domestic product. Each of these variables was also significantly related to the main predictor variable (gun ownership).” The authors concluded that the association between firearm ownership and higher firearm suicide rates is causal.

Siegel, M., & Rothman, E. F. (2016). Firearm ownership and suicide rates among U.S. men and women, 1981–2013. American Journal of Public Health, 106(7), 1316–1322.