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Data: Gun deaths by suicide out-pacing homicides

9-mm-gun-01WASHINGTON, D.C. – People are taking their own lives with guns at a faster pace than people are killing each other guns, according to new data from the Annual Review of Public Health..

During the ten years from 2003 to 2012, the most recent year for which data are available, 313,045 persons died from firearm-related injuries in the United States. These deaths outnumber US combat fatalities in World War II; they outnumber the combined count of combat fatalities in all other wars in the nation’s history. The total societal costs of firearm injuries were estimated to be $174.1 billion in 2010.

Firearm-related deaths and injuries, considered in aggregate, were not deemed a public health problem until late in the twentieth century. Prior convention held that interpersonal violence was the domain of criminologists and criminal justice professionals. Self-directed violence was a mental health problem. Unintentional shootings were “accidents,” a safety concern. The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence took a unifying approach in 1969, but few others followed suit. However, by 1989, the American Medical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs had labeled firearm deaths and injuries “a critical public health issue”.

Most deaths from firearm violence are suicides, not homicides—60.5%, on average, over the decade ending in 2012. Over the past 30 years, suicide has exceeded homicide even when firearm homicide rates were at their highest, and it was also the case for most of the twentieth century. There has been a notable divergence in firearm suicide and homicide rates since 2006; homicides have decreased, but suicides have increased by a like amount. As a result, nearly two-thirds (64.0%) of deaths from firearm violence were suicides in 2012.

In 2012, here were 32,288 deaths from firearm violence in the United States, a rate that’s remained relatively stable over the past few years.

Risk for firearm suicide is concentrated among White males, however, and the disparity increases with age. In 2012, rates for Whites rose more than did those for Blacks and Hispanics during adolescence and early adulthood and continued generally to increase with age thereafter, most rapidly beginning at ages 70–74. In contrast, rates for Black and Hispanic males decreased following young adulthood until middle age, before increasing again among the elderly. At ages 85 and older, the firearm suicide rate for White males was 3.2 times that for Hispanic males and 5.0 times that for Black males. For females, unlike males, suicide risk did not increase among the elderly. Suicide rates were higher for White females than for Blacks or Hispanics at all ages but decreased steadily after ages 50–54.

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