Does Owning A Gun Make You Safer?

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It is unfortunate and deeply troubling that the gun lobby does not accurately cite the mountain of available research that the easy access to firearms leads to more suicides. Hard data and numerous research studies strongly refute the gun lobby's spin that suicidal persons will simply find another way to take their own life.  

The truth is that the “means” by which an individual chooses to end his or her life matters a great deal. The combination of impulse, access to guns, and the lethality of firearms results in higher suicides rates. Whereas other suicide methods are less fatal and often require more time and skill in order to complete, easy access to lethal firearms strips away the precious seconds and minutes that can interrupt a suicide attempt.  

According to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, firearms are used in 52% of all suicides, more than every other method combined. In comparison, hanging accounts for 23% of suicides, overdose for 18%, and jumping and cutting both account for 2% (see link below).  

Someone who attempts suicide with a firearm is more likely, and tragically, to succeed in ending his or her life. Most striking is that less than 1% of nonfatal suicide attempts are with a gun. The far majority of nonfatal suicide attempts treated in emergency rooms result from overdose, 64%, followed by cutting at 19%. In other words, suicide methods, besides using a gun, greatly increase the chances of surviving.  

Most troubling is the gun lobby's callous view that access to guns or gun suicides aren’t a big deal, even if new research indicates that higher rates of gun ownership increases suicides. We strongly disagree with the gun lobby -- we think gun suicides remain a critical public health and public safety problem.  

Freedom States Alliance and our fellow gun violence prevention advocates, along with mental health advocates, fervently believe that to prevent suicides we must educate families about the risks of keeping guns at home. One of the keys to preventing suicides is better information about the risks of easy access to firearms. Understanding that “means matter,” with respect to guns, is an important step to saving lives.