Firearms Research Team Publications: July 2009-Present
I Firearm Deaths
80. The United States has incredibly high rates of firearm death: Using recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), this paper provides striking evidence on the size of the U.S. problems of gun homicide, overall homicide, gun suicide, and unintentional gun death compared to other advanced countries—for both genders and every age group.
Publication: Richardson EG, Hemenway D. Homicide, suicide and unintentional firearm fatality: comparing the United States with other high-income countries, 2003. Journal of Trauma, 2011; 70:238-43.
II Firearm Accidents:
81. Youth who die in gun accidents are shot by other youth.
The majority of people killed in firearm accidents are under age 24, and most of these young people are being shot by someone else, usually someone their own age. The shooter is typically a friend or family member, often an older brother. By contrast, older adults are at far lower risk of accidental firearm death, and most often are shooting themselves. This article highlights one of the many benefits of the National Violent Death Reporting System. Before the NVDRS, data on the shooter in unintentional gun deaths were not readily available.
Publication: Hemenway D, Barber C, Miller M. Unintentional firearm deaths: a comparison of other-inflicted and self-inflicted shootings. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2010; 42:1184-8.
Vital statistics data on accidental gun deaths are inaccurate.
Data on accidental firearm deaths reported in the vital statistics system (e.g., WISQARS) incorrectly place many unintentional shootings of children as homicides, and report as accidents many shootings of older adults where the determination of whether the event was a suicide or homicide has not yet been made. By contrast, National Violent Death Reporting System data are accurate and can be used with confidence.
Publication: Barber C, Hemenway D. Too many or too few unintentional firearm deaths in official U.S. mortality data? Accident Analysis and Prevention. 2011; 43:724-31.
III Suicide
82. Recent science continues to affirm the guns-suicide connection
This article summarizes recent additional to the scientific literature about means restriction policies and suicide.
Publication: Johnson RM, Coyne-Beasley T. Lethal means reduction: what have we learned?
Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2009; 21: 635–640
83. Veterans might have lower suicide rates without easy gun access
There are no differences in suicide risk among middle-aged and older male veterans and non-veterans. Suicide by firearm is higher, suicide by non-firearm is lower. It is probable that lower baseline risk of active duty soldiers (healthy worker effect) tend to be counterbalanced by the accessibility of firearms to these veterans.
Publication: Miller M, Barber C, Azrael D, Calle EE, Lawler E, Mukamal KJ. Suicide among US veterans: a prospective study of 500,000 middle-aged and elderly men. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009; 170:494-500.
84. An example of web-based suicide prevention training on the benefits of means restriction
The case example is HICRC’s National Suicide Prevention Training, which uses the public health approach and includes training on means restriction.
Publication: Stone D, Barber C, Posner M. Improving public health practice in suicide prevention through online training: a case example. In: Sher L & Villens S., eds. Internet and Suicide. New York: Nova Science, 2009.
85. There are effective ways to reduce suicide without individual mental health treatment
This introduction to suicide as an international public health problem examines the role of promoting mental health, changing cultural norms, and reducing the availability of lethal means in preventing suicide.
Publication: Barber C, Miller M. A public health approach to preventing suicide. In: Finkel M. Perspectives in Public Health: Challenges for the Future. Santa Barbara CA: Praeger Publishers, 2010.
86. ED physicians and nurses rarely counsel about lethal means restriction
In one Boston emergency department, ED physicians and nurses believe they should counsel suicidal patients on lethal means restriction, but they often don’t. Psychiatrists working at the ED were much more likely to ask about firearms.
Publication: Betz M, Barber C, Miller M. Lethal means restriction as suicide prevention: variation in belief and practices among providers in an urban ED. Injury Prevention. 2010; 16:278-81.
87. Mental health providers can be effectively trained on reducing the risk of gun suicide
The CALM workshops were effective in improving mental health care providers’ attitudes, beliefs and skills regarding lethal means counseling.
Publication: Johnson R, Frank E, Ciocca M, Barber C. Training mental health providers to reduce at-risk patients’ access to lethal means of suicide: Evaluation of the CALM project. Archives of Suicide Research. In press.
88. Adolescents use the family gun to kill themselves
The vast majority of adolescent suicide guns come from parents of other family members.
Publication: Johnson RM, Barber C, Azrael D, Clark DE, Hemenway D. Who are the owners of firearms used in adolescent suicides? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. 2010; 40:609-611.
89. High rates of homicide followed by suicide in U.S. likely due to easy access to firearms
In a comparison of homicides-suicides in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States (using NVDRS data), major differences—e.g., Switzerland and the US have much higher rates of homicide-suicide than the Netherlands—are explainable by the availability of firearms.
Publication: Liem M, Barber C, Markwalder N, Killias M, Nieuwbeertaa P. Homicide–suicide and other violent deaths: An international comparison. Forensic Science International. Published on line ahead of press, 2010 doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.09.003
IV Evaluations:
90. Fatally flawed study should not affect policy
This paper highlights the serious flaws in a study that found no effect of gun shows on homicide or suicide.
Publications: Wintemute G, Hemenway D, Webster D, Pierce G, Braga AA. Gun shows and gun violence: fatally flawed study. American Journal of Public Health. 2010;100;1856-60.
V Guns in the Home
91. The evidence indicates that for most people a gun increases rather than reduces the risk of tragedy
This paper summarizes the evidence from the scientific studies on the health benefits and costs of having a gun in the home.
Publication: Hemenway D. Risks and benefits of a gun in the home. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2011, on-line before print: doi:10.1177/1559827610396294 .
VI Gun Carrying
92. Students wildly overestimate the level of peer gun carrying; those who overestimate the most are more likely to carry
Data from high school students in Boston find that, as with smoking, drinking and sex, students widely overestimate the amount of activity by their peers. Since most student carry for protection, this overestimate appears to lead to more gun carrying.
Publication: Hemenway D, Vriniotis M, Johnson RM, Miller M, Azrael D. Gun carrying by high school students in Boston, MA: does overestimation of peer gun carrying matter? Journal of Adolescence. on line before print: doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.11.008
