Gun Suicide & Homicide

Extracted from “The Hidden Brain” by Shankar Vedantam

Public Health researcher John Violanti compared the risk of suicide in three stressful professions: police officers, firefighters and military personnel.  He studied 8.5 million death certificates in 28 states.  Military personnel and police officers had four times the risk as firefighters; black police officers had five times the risk; and white women police officers twelve times the risk.  The central difference was that police officers and military personnel carry guns and firefighters don’t.  The guns didn’t cause the suicide but provided a means.

From the American Journal of Epidemiology Volume 160 Issue 10 November 15, 2004 Linda L. Dahlberg, Robin M. Ikeda, and Marcie-jo Kresnow: Guns in the Home and Risk of aViolent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study.

Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home. They were also at greater risk of dying from a firearm homicide, but risk varied by age and whether the person was living with others at the time of death. The risk of dying from a suicide in the home was greater for males in homes with guns than for males without guns in the home. Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method . Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

From "The Hidden Brain"

People who have guns in their homes are at greater risk of being shot and killed than people who do not have guns.  They are not safer as a result of owning a gun.  The combined risk of accidents, suicide and domestic violence dwarfs the risk of homicide in the hands of a stranger.  Each year in the US nearly twice as many people kill themselves as are murdered.