A column in yesterday’s Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR2008070602118.html) examined the important issue of guns and suicide. Almost 33,000 suicides--about twice as many as homicides--occur annually in the United States. About half of suicides are committed with firearms. Because about 400,000 people try to kill themselves every year and only 33,000 complete their attempts, it’s obvious that guns greatly increase the chances that an attempted suicide will end in death.
Holding other factors constant, states with higher rates of gun ownership tend to have higher suicide rates, and households with firearms inside tend to have higher suicide rates as well. These findings do not necessarily prove a firearm-suicide causal link, but they certainly indicate that firearm ownership is a significant risk factor for suicide. Many suicide researchers are convinced that the legal ownership of firearms contributes mightily to the U.S. suicide rate.
Ironically, many law-abiding people buy firearms for self-protection. However, the suicide research strongly suggests that these supposed self-protection devices often have the opposite effect by facilitating the suicide of someone in the home where the firearm is kept. Far from preserving life, firearm ownership helps take it away.
About Me
- Steve Barkan
- I am a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maine. My primary interests are crime,law,and criminal justice and collective behavior and social movements. I'm the author of several books in these areas, including my new book with George Bryjak, Myths and Realities of Crime and Justice: What Every American Should Know (Jones and Bartlett).