Suicide rates boosted by easy access to guns, researchers say

The number of suicides in the US is being inflated by the easy access to guns, a new study comparing rates in Maryland suggests.

Researchers found suicide rates in the most rural areas of the state were 35 per cent higher than in the most urban areas and said a “big reason why” was the greater number of guns in the former. The rate of suicides using firearms was 66 per cent higher.

Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for adults under the age of 45, after accidental injury.

The suicide rate hit 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015, the highest level in 30 years.

In the new study, researchers examined nearly 6,200 suicides in Maryland between 2003 and 2015.

Men carried out 80 per cent of all suicides and 89 per cent of those involving guns. By contrast, women were 37 per cent more likely to kill themselves in urban areas.

The was little difference in rural and urban rates of suicide that did not involve guns.

One of the researchers, Dr Paul Sasha Nestadt, of Johns Hopkins University, said: “The reason that rural suicide rates are higher is because people in these areas are killing themselves with guns.Bloomberg School's psychiatric epidemiology training programme, said: “The reason that rural suicide rates are higher is because people in these areas are killing themselves with guns.

“The media focuses on homicides committed with guns, but only one in three deaths by firearm are homicides.

“The other two are suicides. Most of the other leading causes of death are going down. Suicides are going up – and firearms are a big reason why.”

He criticised those who suggested the method of taking one’s own life was not important.

“It is often said that people would kill themselves anyway, even if they didn't have access to guns,” Dr Nestadt said.

“There is an entire body of research that tells us that is simply not true.”

He pointed to previous research which found 71 per cent of people acted on suicidal thoughts within an hour of having them.

“If there is no gun around, many people won’t have the means to follow through on those impulses, or would use a less lethal method with a much greater chance of survival,” Dr Nestadt said.

“Suicide is an impulse and can only be carried out by firearm if there is a gun in the drawer. Any barrier you can put up can work.”

There are about 32,000 deaths from guns a year in the United States, of which some 60 per cent are suicides, three per cent are accidents and the rest are homicides.

The research was reported in the American Journal of Public Health.