State Gun Laws and Firearm Suicide Rates

While numerous states have enacted laws to reduce access to firearms among high-risk individuals, the evidence regarding the associated outcome of reducing firearm suicide has been mixed, in part due to methodological limitations.

To examine the association between state firearm laws and firearm-related suicide deaths across all 50 US states during the period from 1976 to 2024.

This cross-sectional study, conducted in December 2025, used a difference-in-differences fixed-effects panel regression with Prais-Winsten correction applied to annual state-level data on firearm-related suicides from all 50 US states from January 1976 through December 2024. Sample data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-maintained Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System.

Six firearm laws with prior evidence or theoretical plausibility of affecting risk of suicide: (1) required permits to purchase handguns; (2) waiting periods for firearm purchases; (3) laws requiring permits for concealed carry; (4) minimum age requirements; (5) extreme risk protection order laws; and (6) state permit requirements for gun dealers. Laws were modeled with a 2-year lag.

The primary outcome was annual, age-adjusted, state-specific firearm suicide rate, and the negative control outcome was nonfirearm suicide rate. Models accounted for serial autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in the data and adjusted for a range of sociodemographic covariates.

Across the study period, 2450 observations were collected. The mean overall suicide rate was 13.7 deaths per 100 000 with 7.9 deaths per 100 000 for firearm-related suicide and 5.8 deaths per 100 000 for non-firearm-related suicide. Firearm suicide rates varied 8-fold across states in 2024 (1.8 deaths per 100 000 in New York vs 15.1 deaths per 100 000 in Wyoming). Handgun permit laws (-6.7%; 95% CI, -9.7% to -3.7%), waiting periods (-12.5%; 95% CI, -22.1% to -1.7%), and requirements for a license for concealed carry (-8.9%; 95% CI, -13.1% to -4.8%) were significantly associated with decreases in firearm suicide rates but not with nonfirearm suicide rates. States with 1 (-8.1%; 95% CI, -11.4% to -4.7%), 2 (-12.5%; 95% CI, -16.3% to -8.5%), or all 3 (-25.3%; 95% CI, -34.2% to -15.2%) of these laws (handgun permit requirements, waiting periods, and concealed carry permits) had progressively lower firearm suicide rates.

In this cross-sectional study analyzing data from 49 years and 50 states, permit-to-purchase requirements for handguns, waiting periods, and the requirement for a license for concealed carry were each independently and cumulatively associated with significantly lower firearm suicide rates.