The Increasing Rate of Suicide by Firearms

The rate of suicide has risen over the past 25 years, particularly among persons under the age of 40 years. An examination of types of suicide shows that only the rate of suicide by means of firearms has risen continuously over this period. From 1953 to 1978, the age-adjusted rate of suicide by means of firearms increased from 4.9 to 7.1 per 100,000 population per year, whereas the age-adjusted rate of suicide by all other means remained the same: 5.9 in 1953 and 5.4 in 1978. I have examined and rejected the hypothesis that this striking increase in suicide by firearms could have been due to an increase in self-inflicted firearm accidents that were misdiagnosed as suicide. It is conceivable that the rise in the suicide rate might be controlled by restricting the sale of handguns, since another study has shown that handguns account for 83 per cent of all suicides by firearms. (N Engl J Med. 1983; 308:872–4.) The suicide rate has been rising over the past 25 years, mainly among the relatively young. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Studies of the different types of suicide have shown that suicide by means of firearms accounts for most of the rise. 5 , 7 The purpose of this article is to examine these data and their implications for suicide prevention. Methods Data on the numbers and types of suicides between 1953 and 1977 were collected from the Vital Statistics of the United States series. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Computer printouts of the suicide rates for 1978 were provided by the Statistical Resources Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics (Public . . .