Comparing gun-owning vs non-owning households in terms of firearm and non-firearm suicide and suicide attempts.

Abstract

The goal of this study is to provide, for the United States, estimates for gun-owning and non-owning households in terms of firearm and non-firearm suicides and suicide attempts. To make these ballpark estimates I combine a half-dozen known "facts" about suicide (e.g., households with firearms are at approximately 3× the risk of suicide as households without firearms). Among the six major conclusions are that about 90% of firearm suicides occur among members of gun-owning households, that 75% of suicides among gun-owning families are firearm suicides, but only 20% of suicide attempts among these families are with firearms. This study not only provides estimates of suicides and suicide attempts by gun-owning and non-owning households, but the reasonableness of the estimates provides support for the reasonableness of the half-dozen known "facts" about firearms and suicide.