Factors associated with state variations in homicide, suicide, and unintentional firearm deaths

Author: Price JH / Thompson AJ / Dake JA
Publication: J Community Health
Topics: Accidents/Unintentional Homicide Legislation and Policy Ownership Suicide U.S./National
Keywords: Gun ownership Mortality WISQUAR cross-sectional state
Bibliographic information +

In this cross-sectional study, the authors explored the association between 16 contextual variables with the occurrence of homicide, suicide, and unintentional firearm deaths, using data from 1999 for each U.S. state reported to the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQUAR) database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They found that state-level firearm homicide rates varied significantly by the prevalence of firearms and by the percent of the population that was African American. State-level variations in firearm suicide mortality were significantly associated with firearm prevalence, per capita alcohol consumption, the percent of the population that was African American, and the level of urbanization. State-level unintentional firearm mortality variations were not significantly associated with any of the variables. The authors also found that gun laws had only a limited effect on firearm-related homicide deaths.