MONDAY, Feb. 15, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — Proudly owning a handgun will increase an individual’s threat of firearm-related suicide greater than proudly owning a shotgun, a brand new research finds.
Researchers surveyed surviving family members of 121 gun house owners who had died by suicide, together with 93 who died by a firearm and 28 by different means.
The survey respondents have been requested concerning the varieties and numbers of firearms the one that died had owned.
In accordance with the findings, 77% of those that died utilizing a firearm and 61% of those that died by one other technique owned a handgun, the survey discovered. Almost 90% of people that solely owned handguns used a firearm of their suicide dying, in comparison with about 82% of those that solely owned shotguns.
The research, printed on-line Feb. 11 within the journal Archives of Suicide Analysis, additionally discovered that the extra firearms an individual owned, the much less probably they have been to make use of one to take their very own life.
The discovering stunned research creator Michael Anestis. He’s govt director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Analysis Heart at Rutgers College, in West Piscataway.
“Though such stockpiling could improve the percentages of different problematic outcomes, it seems from our outcomes that the chance for firearm suicide may very well be highest amongst those that personal just one or a small variety of firearms,” Anestis stated in a college information launch.
Suicide deaths have elevated 33% in america within the final 18 years, in line with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
In an try to scale back suicides, researchers try to establish components that have an effect on whether or not an individual makes use of a firearm or different strategies to take their very own life, Anestis famous.
“It’s clear that firearm entry will increase threat of suicide dying total, however little is thought about what differentiates firearm house owners who die by suicide utilizing a firearm from those that select one other technique regardless of having firearm entry,” he defined.
Shotguns, which are usually used primarily for leisure functions like looking, are sometimes saved in looking lodges or with locking gadgets, Anestis stated. That makes them much less accessible than handguns, which are sometimes purchased for defense and could also be saved loaded and simply accessible.
“It additionally could merely be that any firearm within the house bestows threat of use as a suicide technique, however that when a number of varieties of firearms are owned, a person is prone to default to handguns resulting from logistical points or ease of entry,” he urged.
The findings could assist enhance information about which individuals in danger for suicide are almost certainly to make use of firearms, which may result in more practical interventions, Anestis added.
Extra info
The U.S. Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being has extra on suicide prevention.
SOURCE: Rutgers College, information launch, Feb. 11, 2021
