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Suicide by Gunshot

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Borlongan, Hicks, Patterson, Powell and 1 other
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Profiles

  • Charles A. Powell (1842 - 1886)
  • Teodoro Borlongan (1955 - 2005)
    Teodoro Borlongan was the last president of Urban Bank and was one of the leading bankers in the Philippines during his time. Borlongan was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men for domestic bank...
  • Brig. General Francis Engel Patterson, (USA) (1821 - 1862)
    Engle Patterson (March 7, 1821 - November 22, 1862) was a United States Army general who died during the American Civil War.Patterson was born in Philadelphia to Irish-American army officer Robert Patt...
  • Sarah Jane Hicks, Died young (deceased)
  • Gary Stephen Webb (1955 - 2004)
    Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. The ...

Add those who have died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Most people who attempt suicide do not die—unless they use a gun. Across all suicide attempts without a gun, 4% result in death. But when a gun is involved, that figure skyrockets to 90%. That second chance matters: the vast majority of people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die from a later attempt. The research shows that the difference between living to see a better day or dying by suicide is often determined by the presence of a gun. Given the unique lethality of firearms as a means of suicide, addressing gun suicide is an essential element of any strategy to reduce gun violence in this country.

Some of the factors associated with suicide, both at a societal level and at an individual one, are well known. Among social, cultural and economic factors are, in particular, rapid social changes and urbanization, which affect the way in which individuals integrate into society and adjust socially. Relevant individual factors may include sex, age, race or ethnicity, marital status, physical, mental and spiritual health, social adaptation and integration, and an individual’s capacity to cope successfully with painful or stressful life events. Drug and alcohol consumption, as well as other forms of escapist individual adaptation to stress, are also and not surprisingly associated with suicidal tendencies.

People who kill themselves with a firearm are more likely to talk about suicide a month before ending their lives than ask for help and seek mental health treatment, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Center at Rutgers University.

Firearm Suicide Prevention Day, established by Brady and End Family Fire, will be observed on September 12, 2022, and held annually on the second Tuesday in September. (Brady -- Firearm Suicide Prevention Day is Tuesday, Sept. 12)

WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?

  • When a person is in crisis and considering harming themselves or others, family members and law enforcement are often the first people to see the warning signs.Extreme Risk laws, sometimes referred to as “Red Flag” laws, allow loved ones or law enforcement to intervene by petitioning a court for an order to temporarily prevent someone in crisis from accessing guns.
  • Gun owners can make their homes and communities safer by storing their guns securely. This means storing them unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition.
    • There are many affordable options for firearm storage that provide owners with quick access to their guns while still preventing access by children and people at increased risk of harming themselves or others. Further, it is possible that unsecured guns may actually increase the likelihood of crime and violence through an increased risk of gun theft. Each year, an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 guns are stolen, and many are funneled into the underground market, where once-legally-owned firearms can be transferred to people with dangerous histories.
  • A waiting period law requires a certain number of days to pass between the purchase of a gun and when the buyer can actually take possession of that gun. This creates a buffer between someone having a suicidal crisis and access to a gun.
  • To protect individuals in crisis, several states have passed Extreme Risk laws as a way to temporarily remove firearm access. Extreme Risk laws give immediate family members and law enforcement a way to intervene before warning signs escalate into tragedies by petitioning a court for an order to temporarily remove guns from dangerous situations.

Statistics:

  • The annual U.S. firearm suicide rate was 8.1 per 100,000 in 2022, up from about 7.3 per 100,000 in 2019.
    • According to the CDC, it is the “highest documented level since 1968,” the earliest year by which data is available via the agency’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system.
  • Gun suicide claims the lives of nearly 25,000 people in America every year, including more than 3,100 young people and 4,400 veterans.
  • Though gun violence conversations tend to focus on homicides, nearly six out of every 10-gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides. That’s an average of 68 deaths a day. These deaths can be prevented. Policies and practices that focus on disrupting access to firearms in times of crisis have been proven to reduce firearm suicides.
  • The US gun suicide rate is nearly 12 times that of other high-income countries.
  • Nearly six out of every 10-gun deaths in the US are suicides, an average of 65 deaths a day.
  • Over the past decade, the United States firearm suicide rate has increased 19 percent.
    • This trend is of particular concern among young Americans, whose firearm suicide rate has increased 53 percent over the past 10 years,5 and for veterans, who have a firearm suicide rate one and a half times higher than nonveteran adults.
  • Having access to a firearm triples one’s risk of death by suicide.
  • The rate of firearm suicide in rural areas is more than double the rate in urban areas.
  • In a recent national poll, 16 percent of respondents—or roughly 40 million American adults—reported that someone they care for attempted or died by suicide with a gun.
  • Men represent 87% of firearm suicide victims. (CDC, Underlying Cause of Death, 2018-2021.)
    • They are nearly 7 times more likely than women to die by firearm suicide.
    • For men, firearm suicide rates largely increase with age, and are especially high for males 55 and older.
    • For women, firearm suicide rates are highest in the 45-to-59 age range.
  • White Americans represent 83 percent of all firearm suicide victims, and have the highest rate of firearm suicide by race.
  • American Indians / Alaska Natives also have a disproportionately high rate of firearm suicide, with the second-highest rate of firearm suicide among the country’s five major racial and ethnic groups.
  • Over 80% of child firearm suicides involved a gun belonging to a family member.
  • Total suicide and firearm suicide rates per 100,000 population vary considerably from one country to another. Canada’s total suicide rate of 12.9 is similar to Australia (12.7), Norway (12.3), and the United States (11.5). Estonia (40) and Japan (17.9) are among the countries that have higher rates than Canada, while several other countries have rates below one per 100,000 population (United Nations, 1998: 112-113).
  • Youth suicide is sharply increasing in America, especially among Black youth. A 2021 study of childhood suicide data between 2013-2017 found that guns were the second most prevalent suicide method used by kids aged 5 to 11, and in nearly every case, they got the gun from their home. In fact, about 4.6 million children live in homes with access to an unlocked or unsupervised gun.

Panelists shared a number of resources for those who are struggling or worried about a loved one:

From: Samaritans –Preventing Suicide through Gun Safety

Resources & additional reading:
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