Adolescent health briefGun Suicide by Young People in California: Descriptive Epidemiology and Gun Ownership
Section snippets
Methods
We searched the State of California Death Statmaster for the years 1997, 1998 (ICD9 E-code 955), and 1999 (group no. 335 ICD10 No.X72-X74) to identify all suicides by firearm among individuals aged 20 years or less. Of 58 counties within the state, 41 were represented; 17 counties had no cases.
We contacted the coroner/medical examiner (ME) and the local police/sheriff's agency to obtain a copy of their investigative reports. Data on the victim, the incident, the firearm, and the reported owner
Results
We identified 336 firearm suicides (Table 1). We obtained both coroner/ME and police/sheriff reports for 76% (n = 254) of cases, 19% (n = 63) coroner/ME only, 4% (n = 12) police/sheriff only, and 2% (n = 7) death certificate alone. For those cases with coroner/ME and police/sheriff reports, the reported information was in agreement between the two sources.
Most victims were male, and more than half were aged 18–20 years. One-half were listed as white and nearly one-third as Hispanic.
Discussion
In this study we found that although suicide guns were most often owned by someone in the victim's residence—primarily a family member—personal ownership was important among older youth and particularly among older males.
Guns owned by suicide victims were most commonly shotguns or rifles. However 10 victims were the reported owners of the handgun used in the suicide. Details regarding where or how victims acquired these firearms were unavailable.
Ownership patterns in relation to suicide
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from The Eli & Edythe L. Broad Foundation (#06-002679), The Joyce Foundation (#24716), The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (#2001-17381), Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, and The California Wellness Foundation (#200000130). The authors thank Vanessa McHenry, Michael Romero, and Donna Valadez for their expert technical assistance.
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Identifying Suicide Risk in Adolescents With Firearm Access: Screening in the Emergency Department
2023, Academic PediatricsFirearm ownership, attitudes, and safe storage practices among a nationally representative sample of older U.S. adults age 50 to 80
2022, Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :While locked storage rates were higher among these owners than those without children living in or visiting the home, it is important to note that over 20% regularly stored at least one firearm loaded and unlocked. Given that unintentional firearm injuries disproportionately affect children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018; Cunningham et al., 2018), and over 75% of adolescent firearm suicide completers obtained the firearm from their home or that of a relative (Grossman et al., 1999; Johnson et al., 2010; Brent et al., 1991; Shah et al., 2000; Wright et al., 2008), our data highlights the need to provide storage counseling to older adult firearm owners as this may be an important source of unintended child/adolescent firearm access. Research has consistently identified a lower risk of self-inflicted injury and death in households practicing locked storage (Conwell et al., 2002; Brent et al., 1991; Shah et al., 2000; Brent et al., 1993a; Grossman et al., 2005; Brent et al., 1993b; Shenassa et al., 2004).
From Regression Analysis to Deep Learning: Development of Improved Proxy Measures of State-Level Household Gun Ownership
2020, PatternsCitation Excerpt :Our work fits within this context and contributes toward this objective of developing more accurate proxy measures of gun ownership for public health research and policy development. More specifically, gun ownership has been a main predictor or control variable in several important studies of suicide and gun violence.4–21 When available, surveys conducted in the United States provide the most straightforward measure of household gun ownership—that is, the percentage of households with at least one gun.
Type of Firearm Used in Suicides: Findings From 13 States in the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2005–2015
2019, Journal of Adolescent HealthCitation Excerpt :Our finding that handguns predominate among firearm suicides as a whole, but that long guns play a prominent role in adolescent and young adult male suicides, particularly in rural areas, reflects findings from two prior small studies that gathered information about gun type among firearm suicide decedents [19,20]. Because hunting and sport shooting with rifles and shotguns are often traditional parts of young rural males' upbringing, ready access to these guns may explain the disproportionate contribution long guns make to both the distribution of gun types we observed in rural compared with urban areas and the higher suicide rates among rural versus urban male adolescents reported in prior studies [19,20]. The role of long guns in adolescent suicides has ramifications for gun safety messages to teenagers' parents, particularly in rural areas.
Prevalence and correlates of handgun access among adolescents seeking care in an urban emergency department
2010, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :To date, prevalence estimates for handgun access among adolescents have focused on school-based samples involving high school students (Borowsky and Ireland, 2004; Swahn et al., 2002). These samples are helpful in describing access rates for a general population; however, they may miss high-risk individuals who do not attend school (Sheley and Brewer, 1995; Wright et al., 2008; Wilson and Klein, 2000). Researchers (Cunningham et al., 2005; Cheng et al., 2003, 2008; Walton et al., 2008) have suggested that the ED may be a logical place to implement adolescent injury prevention programs focused on decreasing adolescent gun injury, as the population of adolescents seeking ED care have elevated rates of other risk behaviors (substance use, violence) versus community or school-based samples (Wilson and Klein, 2000).