Firearm scarcity can stop many deaths

Gun violence is still a major public health concern in the United States, with firearm suicide and homicide accounting for the majority of gun deaths that might have been prevented if it was more difficult for people to get their hands on these deadly weapons.

In 2020, 70,555 people died by suicide and homicide with a majority of the deaths resulting from a firearm: 52 percent for suicide and 79 percent for homicide.

Suicides resulted in 45,979 American deaths in 2020, and firearms were used to commit 24,292 of those suicides. Of the 24,576 homicides in the US that year, firearms were used to commit 19,384 of them.

Using the State Firearm Law Database, the Rutgers researchers compared suicide and homicide rates across the United States from 1991 to 2017 with the number of firearm laws in each state.

That study found that even with several factors, such as unemployment and overall gun ownership rates, taken into account, the total number of firearm laws in a state was a significant predictor of suicide and homicide rates.

In 2017, 66,683 people died by suicide and homicide with a majority of those deaths resulting from a firearm—48 percent for suicide and 74 percent for homicide—indicating both an increase in needless and tragic death as well as more of those attributed to guns. 

“As states’ strictness increased, their suicide and homicide rates decreased,” said John F. Gunn III, a former researcher at the Rutgers School of Public Health and New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.

In a subsequent study, Gunn later found that youth who carry guns are at increased risk of violence and premature death—but states with more gun laws had fewer young people reporting gun-carrying behavior.

Gunn, who led researchers that were the first to focus on the impact of the total number of firearms regulations in each state, utilized a general index of states’ overall approach to firearms regulation by aggregating the total number of gun laws.

This index broadly defined states as restrictive or lenient towards firearms.

“With close to 40, 000 deaths annually from firearm violence, regulations that can limit access to firearms appear to reduce state-level mortality,” said senior study author Bernadette Hohl, an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. “Evidence-based implementation of firearm regulations across the whole of the United States has the potential to significantly reduce the toll of firearm violence.”

Nothing has been done to severely limit access to firearms, among legal buyers, among criminals or among individuals set on self-harm.

Previous research supports associations between state suicide and homicide rates and specific gun laws, such as waiting periods and universal background checks, with most work finding that the presence of specific firearm laws is associated with reductions in gun mortality.

In 2017, researchers said more study is required to continue to examine the relationship between firearm laws and suicide and homicide rates but the available evidence suggests that nothing has changed except the circumstances getting worse.

“Assessing the implications of law changes, regulation enforcement and if there is a correlation with violent crime decline will be necessary,” Gunn said.