Type of household firearm ownership and firearm suicide among adolescents, 1976-2018

Black and White Demographic Patterns of Gun Ownership and Suicide, 2021

OBJECTIVE

We use 2021 data to compare the demographic patterns of adult White and Black gun ownership with their respective race-specific rates of firearm, non-firearm and total suicide, and the percentage of suicides using firearms.

METHODS

Data on gun ownership came from a nationally representative sample of over 19,000 respondents to the 2021 National Firearms Survey. Both race-specific gun ownership and suicide rates were stratified by respondent demographics-sex (male, female), census region (Northeast, South, Midwest, West), urbanicity (metropolitan or non-metropolitan), and age (18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+).

RESULTS

White adults reported higher rates of gun ownership than did Black adults (33% vs 24%) but a firearm was used in a similar percentage of suicides (56% vs 58%). The demographic patterns of gun ownership of White and Black adults were similar-those least likely to report owning firearms were females, those living in the Northeast, residents of metropolitan areas, and younger adults. But the suicide patterns were somewhat different-whereas suicide rates among White adults were highest among older Whites and among Whites in non-metropolitan areas, suicide rates among Black adults were highest among younger Blacks and similar in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.

CONCLUSIONS

The self-reported levels and patterns of Black gun ownership cannot explain why such a high percentage of Black suicides are firearm suicides or why firearm and total suicide rates of Black adults fall so dramatically with age.

Locked and loaded: correlates of in-home firearm storage beliefs and behaviours

OBJECTIVES

To understand how crime and victimisation fears and risks operate alongside social status threats and motivations to shape unsafe in-home firearm storage practices and beliefs.

METHODS

Using data from firearm owners identified in a nationwide sample surveyed in 2023, this study examined how in-home loaded firearm accessibility, firearm storage practice and firearm safety beliefs are associated with: fear of crime and victimisation; perceived and personal victimisation; racial resentment; cultural and status threats; and masculinity threats. Regression models also accounted for the role of gender, race, marital status, political affiliation, geographic region and protective motivation for firearm ownership.

RESULTS

Over 40% of firearm owners reported having a loaded firearm 'always accessible' at home, and almost half think homes with firearms are safer than those without. About one-third of owners reported storing firearms locked but still loaded. Crime and victimisation fears and threats were unrelated to firearm storage behaviours and beliefs; however, firearm owners who experience higher levels of sociocultural anxiety are more likely to always have a loaded firearm accessible at home, store firearms locked and loaded, and believe that firearms make homes safer.

CONCLUSIONS

Identifying the barriers to safer storage beliefs and behaviours is essential for refining and enhancing effective firearm injury prevention strategies. Sociocultural anxieties may not reflect concrete threats to physical safety, but they can be experienced as feelings of insecurity, instability and distress that-for some Americans-may be managed by knowing they have a (loaded) firearm within reach.

Trends in paediatric firearm-related encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic by age group, race/ethnicity and schooling mode in Tennessee

BACKGROUND

Increases in paediatric firearm-related injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic may be due to changes in where children and adolescents spent their time. This study examines changes in the frequency of paediatric firearm-related encounters as a function of schooling mode overall and by race/ethnicity and age group at a large trauma centre through 2021.

METHODS

We use data from a large paediatric and adult trauma centre in Tennessee from January 2018 to December 2021 (N=211 encounters) and geographically linked schooling mode data. We use Poisson regressions to estimate smoothed monthly paediatric firearm-related encounters as a function of schooling mode overall and stratified by race and age.

RESULTS

Compared with pre pandemic, we find a 42% increase in paediatric encounters per month during March 2020 to August 2020, when schools were closed, no significant increase during virtual/hybrid instruction, and a 23% increase in encounters after schools returned to in-person instruction. The effects of schooling mode are heterogeneous by patient race/ethnicity and age. Encounters increased among non-Hispanic black children across all periods relative to pre pandemic. Among non-Hispanic white children, encounters increased during the closure period and decreased on return to in-person instruction. Compared with pre pandemic, paediatric firearm-related encounters increased 205% for children aged 5-11 and 69% for adolescents aged 12-15 during the school closure period.

CONCLUSION

COVID-19-related changes to school instruction mode in 2020 and 2021 are associated with changes in the frequency and composition of paediatric firearm-related encounters at a major trauma centre in Tennessee.