Handgun Divestment and Risk of Suicide

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Suicidology

Background:

• Firearm ownership is a known risk factor for suicide.
• Limited data exists on the impact of ending firearm ownership (divestment) on suicide risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the reduction in suicide risk associated with firearm divestment.
• To analyze the effect of divestment on both overall and firearm-specific suicide risk.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 523,182 handgun owners.
• Employed pooled logistic regression with inverse probability weighting.
• Adjusted for demographic and area-level factors to estimate suicide risk differences.

Main Results:

• The 5-year suicide risk was 25.6 per 10,000 with divestment vs. 15.2 per 10,000 without divestment.
• The 5-year firearm-specific suicide risk was 6.3 per 10,000 with divestment vs. 12.9 per 10,000 without divestment.
• Bias analyses indicated potential unmeasured confounding, but divestment showed a protective effect.

Conclusions:

• Firearm divestment appears to reduce firearm suicide risk by 50% or more.
• Overall suicide risk is also likely reduced by firearm divestment.
• Further research is needed to fully quantify biases and confirm findings.