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
