William Atkins
Thursday, 18 September 2008 21:12
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
The study by Miller and Hemenway took data from 2001 to 2005 within the United States using the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (for firearm ownership) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS,
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars).
They used 15 states (Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, West Virginia, Montana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Alabama, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Utah) that had the highest levels of household gun ownership.
Conversely, they found six states (Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York) with the lowest levels.
The two groups of states had approximately equal populations of people.
They found that in the U.S. states with the most gun owners, there were 14,365 suicides with the use of guns by men.
This number was 3.7 times the number for the U.S. states with the fewest gun owners (14,365 versus 3,971).
Miller and Hemenway also found that the number of suicides by women with the use of guns was 7.9 times more likely in those states with the most guns (2,212) when compared to the states with the fewest guns (286).
At the same time, the two researchers found that suicide rates were virtually the same in all U.S. states when guns were not used in carrying out suicides:
• 6,573, highest number of gun states, versus 6,781, lowest number of gun states, for men
• 2,599, highest, versus 2,478, lowest, for women.
The authors found three reasons why suicides are more likely in high gun ownership states. Please read page three.
