{"id":180622,"date":"2020-10-28T16:49:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&p=180622"},"modified":"2020-12-02T15:36:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T20:36:05","slug":"young-adult-suicide-rate-linked-to-states-handgun-purchase-age-laws","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2020\/young-adult-suicide-rate-linked-to-states-handgun-purchase-age-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Adult Suicide Rate Linked to States\u2019 Handgun Purchase Age Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Rifle<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Suicide rates have been increasing in the US for years, particularly among adolescents, with firearms accounting for more than half of these deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a new School of Public Health study published in the journal BMJ<\/em><\/a> finds that higher age minimums for buying a gun could save hundreds of lives each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found state policies that limited the sale of handguns to those aged 18 or older were associated with an increased suicide rate among 18-to-20-year-olds between 2001 and 2017, by an average of 344 more deaths per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But state policies that limited the sale of handguns to those aged 21 or older were associated with an 18-percent reduction in the suicide rate among 18-to-20-year-olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study demonstrates the important role that policies can play in reducing suicide, particularly for populations at high risk of suicide such as young adults,\u201d says study lead author Julia Raifman<\/a>, assistant professor of health law, policy & management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe study contributes to a broad body of evidence that means restriction of firearms is effective for reducing suicide,\u201d she says, \u201cand recent policy changes show us this is a firearm policy it is feasible to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen mental health across the country, Raifman and colleagues also emphasize the importance of firearm policy in preventing suicide deaths during and after the pandemic. \u201cEveryone is struggling,\u201d she says, \u201cbut young people in particular report increases in depression, and suicide could be a real concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the BMJ <\/em>study, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation<\/a>\u2019s Evidence for Action Program<\/a>, the researchers used suicide data for over 500 million person years from adolescents aged 13 to 20 years in all 46 US states that did not change their policies on age for handgun sales between 2001 and 2017 (a “person year” is the number of years of follow up multiplied by the number of people in the study).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To identify states\u2019 handgun purchase age requirements, they used the SPH-based State Firearms Law Database<\/a> and the Giffords Center law database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further analysis indicated increases in suicide rates in states that lowered the age of handgun sales (Missouri and South Carolina), but no effect was found in states that increased the age of handgun sales (West Virginia and Wyoming) during the study period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study authors write that the high levels of firearm ownership in Wyoming and West Virginia (66 percent and 59 percent of households in 2004, respectively, compared to 38 percent in the 46 comparison states) meant that the change in age of handgun purchases had little effect on access to firearms by adolescents in these states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that does not mean other states increasing the age of handgun sales would not save lives, Raifman says. While this study only looks at policies up to 2017, she notes that the original motivation for this study was seeing three states\u2014Florida, Vermont, and Washington\u2014raise their minimum age for handgun sales following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Future research will measure the impact of these laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Raifman and colleagues are also turning their attention to the relationship between gun policies and the mental health impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This spring, Raifman led the creation of the COVID-19 US State Policy Database (CUSP)<\/a> as a resource for researchers and policymakers to see the effects of different policies during the pandemic. Firearm policies\u2014both long-standing laws and pandemic-specific decisions such as categorizing gun stores as essential businesses\u2014have been part of CUSP since the beginning, and the subject of ongoing research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BMJ <\/em>study was co-authored by: Michael Siegel<\/a>, professor of community health sciences; Michael Ulrich<\/a>, assistant professor of health law, ethics & human rights; and Dean Sandro Galea<\/a>. The other co-authors are: alum Elysia Larson (SPH\u201910), now of Harvard Medical School; Colleen L Barry of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Anita Knopov of the Brown University Department of Emergency Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24\/7 across the United States. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (Espa\u00f1ol: 1-888-628-9454; deaf and hard of hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or visit <\/em>https:\/\/suicidepreventionlifeline.org\/talk-to-someone-now\/<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suicide rates have been increasing in the US for years, particularly among adolescents, with firearms accounting for more than half of these deaths. Now, a new School of Public Health study published in the journal BMJ finds that higher age minimums for buying a gun could save hundreds of lives each year. The study found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14430,"featured_media":187232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"Guns"},"tags":[2439,1872,2450,3339,1866,1871,3380,2283,3566,2191],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3525,3531,3535,3540,3563],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[2797,2473,2155],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/180622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/180622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180631,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/180622\/revisions\/180631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=180622"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=180622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}