Corona virus Could make America's gun problem even deadlier

Corona virus Could make America's gun problem even deadlier

Gun

We studied 26 million Americans over 12 years. Here's what we learned about gun ownership.

Millions of Americans have experienced the corona virus pandemic directly,as they or their loved ones suffered through infection. But for most of us, the experience is defined by weeks and months on end stuck at home. The shut-ins are testing the safety of our home environments. Stress and isolation combined with another feature of american life--easy access to firearms --could from a deadly brew.

Last week we released results of a new study--the largest ever on the connection between suicide and handgun ownership--in the new England Journal of Medicine revealing that gun owners were nearly four times as likely to die by suicide than people without guns,even when controlling for gender,age,race and neighborhood.

Several myths could public understanding of the connection between guns and suicide. Perhaps the most pernicious is the idea that people who really want to end their lives will find a way to do it,making the presence or absence of a gun somewhat irrelevant.

Decandes of research on suicide tell a different story. Suicide attempts are often impulsive, prompted by fleeting crises. A vast majority of people who attempt suicide service and do not go on to die in a future suicide. But whether attempts get that second chance at life depends a lot on the method they use, which in turn depends on what is really at hand. Firearms afford few second chances. In sum, methods matter.

Our study complied information on 26 million Americans over 12 years. We tracked handgun acquisitions in large sample of California residents and then compared the frequency of death among those who did and didn't own them.

The levitated suicide rates among handgun owners were driven by their higher rates of suicide by firearm--eight times higher for men and 35 times higher for women,compared with non-owners of the same gender. By contrast,handgun owners didn't have higher rates of suicide from other methods or higher rates of death by other causes. These result are consistent with those from every serious study that has examined the relationship between gun access and suicide in the United States.If anything,we find a stronger connection than most other have.

A lack of good data has long hampered efforts to improve understanding of gun violence in the United States. California is probably the only state in which this study could have been done. The state requires all firearm sales to be transacted are reported and archived,creating a unique statewide repository. This comprehensive historical information allowed us to identify people acquiring their fast handgun, and then see what happened to them over time. knowing about gun stocks and purchasing histories is important,because an owner's first gun is likely to matter much more than his or her second or 10th one.

The period of greatest suicide risk for first time handgun owners was the initial few weeks of ownership, when it soared to be 100 times greater than that for non-owners. Nonetheless , 85 percent of all gun suicides among owners occurred more than a month after purchase, and more than half occurred more than a year later. Taken together,  these findings suggest that while some people who die by gun suicide buy their weapons intending to kill themselves, that isn't true for most who die this way---their deaths reflect the substantial and enduring risk posed by access to handguns.

Better in formations about gun stocks and purchasing histories would also be valuable for disentangling the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on firearm violence. News reports and commentators have focused on spikes in guns sales. But how many of these sales are to new gun owners? Unfortunately, we may never know.Also purchasing spikes tent to be short-lived, ultimately accounting for a small fraction of total sales over the longer run. None of this to suggest that concerns about rising rates of gun violence during shutdowns are unfounded. But expect the largest public health impact to come from rising level of violence in the estimated 40 millions American households that had guns long before the pandemic struck.

People buy and keep firearms for many reasons. When it comes to handguns, surveys consistently show self-protection at the top of the lists. Despite colorful anecdotes of armed defenses of home and hearth, there has not been a credible study demonstrating the security benefits of private gun ownership for individuals or communities. On the other hand, evidence that guns may be misused and do serious harm--to owners and their family members,including children ---is substantial and growing. It's a lopsided balance sheet that should give pause to people who own guns or are considering buying their first gun.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline