Gun in Home Increases Risk of Gunshot Death

A study has found that people who keep a gun in their home are almost twice as likely to die in a gun-related homicide and 16 times more likely to use a gun to commit suicide, compared to people without a gun in their home. The findings were reported in the June 2003 issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

The study was conducted by the Violence Prevention Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The researchers compared 1,720 US homicide victims and 1,959 suicide victims over the age of 18 with a sampling of other adults. They found that handguns accounted for 40% of all domestic homicides and one-third of all suicides. In fact, people with a gun in their home were much more likely than others to use a gun for suicide, perhaps because a gun requires little or no preparation. Since gunshot wounds are so traumatic, most suicide attempts with a gun are fatal.

"Emergency department staff at hospitals throughout the country see the devastation caused by guns on a daily basis,” said Douglas J. Wiebe, Ph.D., instructor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Philadelphia, USA), who led the study. "In any 24-hour period, more than 160 people are treated for gunshot wounds. Physicians should talk with their patients about the implications of owning a gun, particularly those whose patients appear suicidal or present signs of domestic violence.”




Related Links:
UCLA