Deaths from gun suicide in 11 congressional districts across Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee are roughly double the national average, according to a new report from the Everytown for Gun Safety Fund. Annually, more than 100 residents take their lives using guns in these districts. By contrast, 17 districts across Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., have 10 or fewer annual deaths from gun suicides.
“What we know is that where there are more guns, more people die by suicide. And the reason more people die by suicide is that more people die by firearm suicide,” Deborah Azrael, director of research for the Harvard Injury Control Research Center at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who was not involved in the report, said in an October 6, 2020 Guardian article. The Center’s work on firearm suicide prevention includes the Means Matter campaign, which works to create a norm that gun owners voluntarily hand over their guns when they are going through tough times.
Read the Guardian article: Gun suicide is overwhelming US rural districts in west and south, report says
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