Patterns of household gun ownership and firearm suicide among black men compared to white men

Abstract

Little is known about the patterns of household gun ownership among Black Americans, so little is known about the relationship between the patterns of Black household gun ownership and the patterns of Black firearm suicide. We analyze data from the 2001–2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the first and last years for which a gun question was part of the core questions. We compare household gun ownership patterns for Black men compared to White men across geographic (region, urbanicity), demographic (age, education, married, children at home), and health-related characteristics (binge drinking, smoking), and find that the patterns are quite similar for all eight variables. However, when we compare these race-specific patterns to the race-specific firearm suicide patterns for 2001–2004, while the White firearm suicide patterns follow their gun ownership patterns, the Black patterns do not. While gun ownership increases with age, adult male Black firearm suicide rates are highest in the younger age group—an age group that also has a high proportion of suicides that are firearm suicides. Differences in unadjusted demographic patterns in firearm suicide between Black men and White men cannot be explained by differences in the self-reported patterns of household gun ownership.