Stop 2

Firearms & Youth Suicide

  • A youth aged 10-19 committed suicide with a gun every seven hours in 1998 - 1,241 young people in one year.[1]

  • In 1997, suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death among people aged 15-24 in the U.S.[2]

  • From 1993 through 1997, an average of 1,409 children and teenagers took their own lives with guns each year.[3]

  • The increased rate of youth suicide over the past four decades is largely related to the use of firearms as a method.[4]

  • Between 1980 and 1994, the suicide rate for teenagers 15-19 increased by 29%; the increase in firearm-related suicides accounted for virtually all (96%) of the increase in the overall suicide rate.[5]

  • Among 10-19 year-olds, guns are the method used in 65 percent of male suicides and 47 percent of female suicides.[6]

  • For children under 15 years of age, the suicide rate in the U.S. is two times higher than that of 25 other industrialized countries combined - largely because the firearm-related suicide rate in the U.S. is 11 times that of the other industrialized nations.[7]

  • At a national level, emergency room data verify that suicide attempts with firearms are almost always fatal - for every gun suicide, there is less than one nonfatal injury.[8]

  • In Oregon from 1988-1993, 78.2 percent of suicide attempts with firearms were fatal. Only 0.4 percent of suicide attempts by drug overdose were fatal.[9]

  • Many suicides are the result of impulsive behavior. Young male suicide victims were not generally depressed but acted on impulse in response to trouble at home, in school, and with the police.[10]

  • The odds that suicidal adolescents will kill themselves double when a gun is kept in the home.[11]

  • People living in households where a gun is kept are 5 times more likely to commit suicide than people living in households without a gun.[12]

  • In King County, Washington, more than 75% of the guns used by children in suicide attempts and unintentional shootings were stored in the home of the victim, a relative, or a friend.[13]

Updated 3/17/00

Notes:

  1. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC Wonder 2000
  2. National Vital Statistics Reports. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999. Vol. 47, No. 19.
  3. Derived from NCHS data.
  4. Consensus Statement on Youth Suicide by Firearms. American Association of Suicidology. November 1996.
  5. National Summary of Injury Mortality Data, 1987-1994. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. November, 1996.
  6. National Center for Health Statistics, 1998
  7. Miller M, Hemenway D. The Relationship between firearms and suicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1999. Vol.4, No. 1.
  8. Annest JL, National estimates of nonfatal firearm-related injuries. Beyond the tip of the iceberg. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1995. Vol. 273, No. 22.
  9. MMWR Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April 28, 1995. 44(16);312-315,321-323.
  10. Weil DS, Hemenway D. Introduction. In: Rosenberg ML. Violence in America: A Public Health Approach. New York, NY. 1991:3-13.
  11. Brent, Risk factors for adolescent suicide. A comparison of adolescent suicide victims with suicidal inpatients. General Psychiatry, 1988. Vol. 45, No. 6.
  12. Kellerman AL. Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997; 327:467-472.
  13. Grossman DC. Self-inflicted and unintentional firearm injuries among children and adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. August 1999. Vol. 153.