Lin J & Lu T. Association between the accessibility to lethal methods and method-specific suicide rates: an ecological study in Taiwan. J Clin Psychiatry. 2006;67(7):1074-1079.
Lubin G, Werbeloff N et al. Decrease in Suicide Rates After a Change of Policy Reducing Access to Firearms in Adolescents: A Naturalistic Epidemiological Study. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 2010;40(5):421-424.
- About 90% of all suicides in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), a mandatory population-based army drafting all youth ages 18-21, during 2003-2005 were firearm suicides. Since many IDF soldiers go home on the weekends, the IDF changed its weapons policy in 2006 to require that firearms remain on base when soldiers take a weekend leave. After this policy change, the total suicide rate in the IDF decreased by 40% in 2007-2008. Most of this decrease was due to a decrease in weekend firearm suicides, with no significant change in weekday suicide rates. These data support previous research indicating restricting firearms access is effective in decreasing overall suicide rates.
Marzuk PM, Leon AC, Tardiff K, Morgan EB, Stajic M, Mann JJ. The effect of access to lethal methods of injury on suicide rates. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992 Jun;49(6):451-8.
Nordentoft M, Qin P, Helweg-Larsen K, Juel K. Time-trends in method-specific suicide rates compared with the availability of specific compounds: The Danish experience. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. 2006; 60(2):97-106.