New research has found that suicide rates are significantly higher in states with high rates of household gun ownership. The study's results appear in the April issue of the Journal of Trauma.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health examined nationwide statistics on suicide rates and gun ownership. They found that in the 15 states with the highest numbers of household gun owners, the suicide rate was double that of the 6 states with the lowest numbers of household gun owners. Population sizes among the states were similar.
The study authors stated that while only 5 percent of all suicide attempts involve guns, over 90 percent of all suicide attempts involving guns are fatal. By contrast, 75 percent of suicide attempts involve drug overdoses, but only 3 percent of these are fatal.
Only the gun-rights fanatics will find this surprising, and I'm sure they'll have some verbose ways to explain it away.
