Suicide Rates, Handgun Control Laws, and Sociodemographic Variables

Abstract

The association of state handgun control laws to state suicide rates was investigated while controlling for sex, age, percent black, percent metropolitan population, population density, and rates of population change, divorce, crime, and unemployment. Gun control laws formed two statistically identifiable groups, (1) laws that place restrictions on the sellers of handguns and (2) laws that place restrictions on the buyers of handguns. A multiple regression analysis indicated that suicide rates were significantly lower in states with low divorce rates, low crime rates, and stringent firearm control laws, as those laws affect both the sellers and the buyers of handguns. The variables in this analysis accounted for 69% of the variance of suicide rates.

Treating the Capability for Suicide: A Vital and Understudied Frontier in Suicide Prevention

“…Put another way, firearm suicides account for more suicide deaths than all other methods combined, thereby highlighting the potential utility of means safety approaches centered on firearms. Along these lines, research has presented a robust and consistent set of results indicating that means safety efforts focused on firearms can have profound and sustained impacts on overall suicide rates (e.g., Boor & Bair, ; Miller, Azrael, & Hemenway, ; Yang & Lester, ). Internationally, such effects were demonstrated most prominently in Israel.…”

What Americans Think About Gun Control: Evidence from the General Social Survey, 1972–2016

“…Here, research has generally found two different but related components of gun control public opinion. The first is a clear urban/rural divide in which rural Americans oppose gun control measures, while respondents in cities are more open to gun control measures, all things considered (e.g., Erskine, ; Boor and Bair, ). Intuitively, rural Americans, especially those with farm or livestock, are more likely to have firearms than city dwellers and are more likely to have practical uses for them (e.g., pest control or euthanizing sick livestock).…”

Explaining Suicide Among Blacks and Whites: How Socioeconomic Factors and Gun Availability Affect Race‐Specific Suicide Rates*

“…Recent research at the state level finds a positive association between levels of household gun ownership and suicide rates for the entire population, in virtually every age group, and for both men and women (Miller, Azrael, and Hemenway, 2002:521). A related literature documents an inverse relationship between restrictiveness in firearms legislation and suicide rates (Boor and Bair, 1990; Lester, 1988; Lester and Murrell, 1986; Loftin et al, 1991; Markush and Bartolucci, 1984; Medoff and Magaddino, 1983). It is important to note, however, that there is also some evidence for method substitution (Lester, 1990, 1996; Rich et al, 1990).…”

“…Miller and Hemenway (1998) note two major problems with ecological studies of firearms and suicide: (1) lack of reliable data on gun ownership levels in the United States by either city or state, and (2) failing to control for key confounders in the study. Concerning the first limitation, many studies do not include measures of gun availability, particularly those that attempt to assess the effect of gun control legislation on suicide rates (Boor and Bair, 1990; Lester, 1990; Lester and Murrell, 1982; Medoff and Magaddino, 1983; Rich et al, 1990; Yang and Lester, 1991). These studies assume that more restrictive legislation has resulted in fewer firearms within households but they include no measures of gun availability to verify this.…”