Special Committee on Gun Violence

CDC/National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports 1999-2003 http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars

• Firearm suicide attempts result in death in approximately 85% of cases.

Help Network; http://www.helpnetwork.org/frames/2006%20Firearms%20and%20Suicide.pdf

• The suicide rate for all U.S. youth aged 10-19 increased from 1980-1995, and more than doubled among youth aged 10-14. Suicide rates among black youth showed the sharpest increase during this period, approaching the rate for white youth. Firearm-related suicides accounted for 96% of the increase in the suicide rate for blacks aged 10-19.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC), March 20, 1998, pp. 193-196.

• A California study found that in the first year after the purchase of a handgun, suicide was the leading cause of death among handgun purchasers, accounting for 24.5% of all deaths and 51.9% of deaths among women 21 to 44 years old.

Help Network; http://www.helpnetwork.org/frames/2006%20Firearms%20and%20Suicide.pdf

• In the first week after the purchase of a handgun, the rate of suicide by firearms among purchasers was 57 times as high as the adjusted rate in the general population. This population remained at increased risk for suicide by firearm for up to 6 years.

Wintemute GJ, Parham CA, Beaumont JJ, Wright M, and Drake C.
Mortality among recent purchasers of handguns. NEJM 1999; 341: 1583-1589.

• In homes with guns, the homicide of a household member is three times as likely to occur than in homes without a gun. The risk of a suicide is increased nearly five-fold in homes with guns.

Kellermann AL et al. Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. New England Journal of Medicine 1993; 329: 1084-1091, and Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. New England Journal of Medicine 1992; 327:467-472 .