Firearm Ownership Rates Research Articles

BMI and Rates of Suicide in the United States: An Ecological Analysis

BMI has been inversely associated with risk of completed suicide in several cohort studies, but putative mechanisms for this association and its generalizability throughout the United States are uncertain. We ascertained recent population-based, state-level data on rates of obesity, completed suicide (by method), firearm ownership, smoking, major depression, income, education, white race, and nonmetropolitan residence, compiled from federal agencies and surveys, and determined the adjusted population-weighted correlations of statewide obesity rates with measures of completed and attempted suicide. Statewide prevalence of obesity was strongly inversely correlated with age adjusted suicide rate (multivariable-adjusted r=-0.66; P<0.001). The correlation was somewhat stronger for rates of nonfirearm-related (r=-0.75; P<0.001) than firearm-related suicides (r=-0.53; P<0.001), and was of similar magnitude as the positive correlations of firearm prevalence with suicide rate (r=0.75; P<0.001) or of obesity with prevalence of diabetes (r=0.41; P=0.006). In analyses of fatal and nonfatal suicidal acts, obesity rates were inversely correlated with rates of suicidal acts using firearms (r=-0.53; P=0.02) and suffocation (r=-0.76; P<0.001) but not other methods. Obesity rates were also inversely correlated with the case-fatality ratios of acts using poisoning (r=-0.51; P=0.01). Thus, statewide rates of obesity are strongly inversely correlated with rates of completed suicide in multivariable analyses, a finding that appears to relate to fewer attempts by suffocation and a lower case-fatality ratio for poisonings, although the mechanism for the inverse correlation with firearm-related suicides requires further elucidation.

Prevalence of State Firearm Mortality and Mental Health Care Resources

A disproportionate share of firearm suicides and homicides are committed by individuals who have a psychiatric diagnosis, many with a history of substance abuse. This study assessed whether selected variables that potentially indicate increased access to mental health care or known demographic risk factors for firearm trauma best predicted state variations in firearm homicide and suicide. Partial correlation coefficients indicated that the proportion of the population within a given state that was African American or Hispanic was significantly associated with increased state firearm homicides. The percent of the population within a given state that had earned a Baccalaureate degree was associated with decreased state firearm homicides. Additionally, increased state firearm ownership rates were significantly associated with firearm suicides, while state educational expenditures were associated with a significant reduction in firearm suicides. The findings suggest that mental health resources within a state have minimal association with firearm homicide and suicide rates. However, state levels of educational achievement and educational expenditures reduce firearm mortality.

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

The current investigation explores the association between rates of household firearm ownership and suicide across the 50 states. Prior ecologic research on the relationship between firearm prevalence and suicide has been criticized for using problematic proxy-based, rather than survey-based, estimates of firearm prevalence and for failing to control for potential psychological risk factors for suicide. We address these two criticisms by using recently available state-level survey-based estimates of household firearm ownership, serious mental illness, and alcohol/illicit substance use and dependence. Negative binomial regression was used to assess the relationship between household firearm ownership rates and rates of firearm, nonfirearm, and overall suicide for both sexes and for four age groups. Analyses controlled for rates of poverty, urbanization, unemployment, mental illness, and drug and alcohol dependence and abuse. US residents of all ages and both sexes are more likely to die from suicide when they live in areas where more households contain firearms. A positive and significant association exists between levels of household firearm ownership and rates of firearm and overall suicide; rates of nonfirearm suicide were not associated with levels of household firearm ownership. Household firearm ownership levels are strongly associated with higher rates of suicide, consistent with the hypothesis that the availability of lethal means increases the rate of completed suicide.

State-level homicide victimization rates in the US in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001–2003

Two of every three American homicide victims are killed with firearms, yet little is known about the role played by household firearms in homicide victimization. The present study is the first to examine the cross sectional association between household firearm ownership and homicide victimization across the 50 US states, by age and gender, using nationally representative state-level survey-based estimates of household firearm ownership. Household firearm prevalence for each of the 50 states was obtained from the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Homicide mortality data for each state were aggregated over the three-year study period, 2001–2003. Analyses controlled for state-level rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, per capita alcohol consumption, and a resource deprivation index (a construct that includes median family income, the percentage of families living beneath the poverty line, the Gini index of family income inequality, the percentage of the population that is black and the percentage of families headed by a single female parent). Multivariate analyses found that states with higher rates of household firearm ownership had significantly higher homicide victimization rates of men, women and children. The association between firearm prevalence and homicide victimization in our study was driven by gun-related homicide victimization rates; non-gun-related victimization rates were not significantly associated with rates of firearm ownership. Although causal inference is not warranted on the basis of the present study alone, our findings suggest that the household may be an important source of firearms used to kill men, women and children in the United States.

The association between changes in household firearm ownership and rates of suicide in the United States, 1981–2002

Objective: To explore whether recent declines in household firearm prevalence in the United States were associated with changes in rates of suicide for men, women, and children. Methods: This time...

Gun Control: Placing Costs in Context

For much of past two years, advocates of firearm licensing and registration have been attacked by hunters, gun lobbyists, and others concerned about soaring government costs of federal program. And in December 2002 Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, released a report that was sharply critical of these increased costs. Dubbed the billion-dollar registry by its opponents, it has been quite fairly estimated that program will have cost more than $1 billion by 2005, 10 years after its inception (Mauser 2001). What has typically escaped notice, however, is that Auditor General Fraser was not prepared to make any statements about effectiveness of program in her December 2002 report, noting, did not audit program efficiency or whether it is meeting its objectives (Canada, Department of Justice 2002: para. 10.21). It is task of Auditor General to point to budgetary anomalies, not to examine relative efficacy of government programs. The rate of firearm death in Canada Between 1989 and 1999 rate of firearm death in Canada dropped from 5.0 per 100,000 to 3.3 per 100,000; this figure included not only declines in culpable homicide but also declines in accidents and suicides. Changes to firearm regulation, beginning in 1978 and culminating in 1995 approval of Canadian Firearms Program, predate these declines. Admittedly, however, it is very difficult to determine whether there is a cause-effect relationship between legislative and regulatory changes and incidence of firearms deaths in Canada. We have only a correlation, and, as critics note, most of decline in firearms deaths occurred prior to 1995, date of implementation of Canadian Firearms Program. With cases of firearms homicides, we also have to acknowledge demographic shift resulting from baby boom generation passing into middle age in both Canada and United States: there are fewer young men in population, and there is, correspondingly, less culpable homicide of all kinds in both countries. But a demographic shift alone cannot explain dramatic decrease in all firearms deaths between 1989 and 1999. For example, significant declines in suicides with firearms cannot be linked to life cycles of baby boomers; suicides are most commonly carried out by elderly men, a demographic grouping rarely associated with culpable homicides involving firearms. It is probably more appropriate to think of decline in rate of firearm death as a reflection of cultural change, rather than as a direct consequence of one specific law. We are becoming a culture less tolerant of guns, images of violence that they tend to represent, and damage that they can do; we are increasingly aware of harms that they are associated with and understandably eager to place limits upon their presence in our daily lives. The changing law has served as a catalyst for, and as a reflection of, these sympathies. We license and register cars; many gun owners can understand corresponding logic. If society requires a licence to operate a vehicle, and appropriate registration of each vehicle, why should a gun, another potentially dangerous commodity, be any different? In fact, as of close of 2002, more than 70% of gun owners had registered their weapons; among majority of non-gun-owners, there is overwhelmIng public support for both licensing and registration (Canada NewsWire 2002). Moreover, in support of this hypothesis of cultural shift, there is evidence that rates of gun ownership have been declining in Canada during 1990s (GPC Research 2001). There is also evidence within Canada of a relationship between extent of gun ownership and extent of firearms deaths: provinces with higher rates of firearm ownership are statistically more likely to have higher rates of firearm death. Two specific areas of concern have emerged from criticisms of licensing and registration: (a) extent of benefits that we collectively realize from Canadian Firearms Program and (b) thorny issue of increased costs and future expenses. …

Rates of household firearm ownership and homicide across US regions and states, 1988-1997.

In this study we explored the association between rates of household firearm ownership and homicide across the United States, by age groups. We used cross-sectional time-series data (1988-1997) to estimate the association between rates of household firearm ownership and homicide. In region- and state-level analyses, a robust association between rates of household firearm ownership and homicide was found. Regionally, the association exists for victims aged 5 to 14 years and those 35 years and older. At the state level, the association exists for every age group over age 5, even after controlling for poverty, urbanization, unemployment, alcohol consumption, and nonlethal violent crime. Although our study cannot determine causation, we found that in areas where household firearm ownership rates were higher, a disproportionately large number of people died from homicide.

Association of rates of household handgun ownership, lifetime major depression, and serious suicidal thoughts with rates of suicide across US census regions

Objective: Cross sectional studies in the United States often find a significant positive association between levels of household firearm ownership and suicide rates. This study investigates whether the association can...

Household firearm ownership and suicide rates in the United States.

In the United States, more people kill themselves with firearms than with all other methods combined. A central question regarding the relation between firearms and suicide is whether the ready availability of firearms increases the suicide rate, rather than merely increasing the proportion of suicides from guns. We used publicly available data for the nine regions and 50 states in the United States over a 10-year period (1988-1997) to examine the association between levels of household firearm ownership and rates of suicide, firearm suicide, and non-firearm suicide by age groups and gender. In both regional and state-level analyses, for the U.S. population as a whole, for both males and females, and for virtually every age group, a robust association exists between levels of household firearm ownership and suicide rates. Where firearm ownership levels are higher, a disproportionately large number of people die from suicide.

Firearm Prevalence and Social Capital

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown a correlation between measures of social capital and morbidity, mortality, and violent crime. This article examines the association across U.S. states between social capital (as measured by mutual trust and civic engagement) and firearm availability. METHODS: The analysis uses OLS to determine degrees of association across U.S. states. Measures of mutual trust come from responses to questions on the U.S. General Social Survey that “you can't be too careful in dealing with people,” and most people “would try to take advantage of you.” Measures of formal civic engagement come from responses to Lifestyle Survey questions concerning times volunteered, club meetings attended, community projects worked on, and church services attended. Informal civic engagement measures come from responses to number of times bowled, played cards, entertained at home, and gave or attended dinner parties, and number of greeting cards sent. The Lifestyle Survey also asked whether respondent believed whether “most people are honest.” The percentage of suicides from firearms, and the average percentage of suicides and homicides from firearms, are used as proxies for state firearm ownership rates. Control variables are the degree of urbanization, the rates of poverty, and the percentage of nonwhites in the state. RESULTS: Across the U.S. states, higher levels of firearm ownership are associated with significantly lower levels of mutual trust and civic engagement. CONCLUSION: While the analysis cannot show causation, states with heavily armed civilians are also states with low levels of social capital.