Access to Guns Increase Suicide and Murder Risk, Study Says

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco claim that people who have easy access to guns are two times more likely to be commit suicide or be murdered.

The latest study reveals that someone who has access to firearms suffers an increased risk of suicide and being a homicide victim. The conclusion of this Meta analysis is based on results of 15 investigations.  

The review looked at studies that focused on death by suicide and homicide. It excluded accidental deaths.

Analysis of the results highlighted a strong gender difference in the data. With access to firearms, men were four times more likely to commit suicide whereas women were three times more likely to be victims of homicide.

"Our analysis shows that having access to firearms is a significant risk factor for men committing suicide and for women being victims of homicide," said Andrew Anglemyer, PhD, MPH, an expert in study design and data analytics in Clinical Pharmacy and Global Health Sciences at UCSF. "Since empirical data suggest that most victims of homicide know their assailants, the higher risk for women strongly indicates domestic violence."

It was also seen that 75 percent of the suicides take place at the victims' home. While the same percentage of female homicide victims dies at home, only 45 percent of male homicide victims die in their houses.

"Firearms cause an estimated 31,000 deaths annually in the United States," NBC News reports. "Data from the 16-state National Violent Death Reporting System indicate that 51.8 percent of deaths from suicide in 2009 were firearm-related; among homicide victims, 66.5 percent were firearm-related."

Among the 15 investigations analysed, more than half of them were conducted after the 1996 federal law, which prohibited the U.S. Department of health and Human Services from funding research work, as it was seen as promoting gun control.

Also the review did not include studies that depended on survey data to estimate the amount of gun ownership.  Rather it was based on studies that had significant information on victims who had access to the weapons.

The finding was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.