Guns In Homes Associated With Higher Rates Of Suicide

An unsurprising but important finding…as reported in “Depression News”:

avi Reply April 18, 2007 at 12:15 pm

“… suicide rates among children, women and men of all ages are higher in states where more households have guns …” is a very weak link.
Could it be that suicidals prefer guns, and not that gun owners prefer to commit suicide?
Tony_P Reply April 18, 2007 at 3:07 pm

Good point. Indeed. The association does not imply causation in one direction or the other. I think the way most people think about it is as a question of availability. The availability of firearms (which is the most common means used by men) facilitates impulsive acts like suicide.

Here is a link to the state with the highest suicide rates; http://tinyurl.com/yswlag

But the link may also be elsewhere…the states (esp. mountain states) with more guns in household are also more rural, less densely populated, and tend to have less access to mental health care. So the associations are complicated and multifactorial.

Thanks for your comment.

ChildTrends Report: Teen deaths by homiside, suicide, and firearms « Commitment to Living - April 25, 2007
[...] by homiside, suicide, and firearms Apropos of my recent posts reflecting about suicide, guns and homicide, colleague Bob Hawkes sent me a link to this report: Teen Homicide, Suicide, and [...]