TUESDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDayNews) -- Laws designed to keep guns away from young people reduce the risk that teenagers will kill themselves, a study finds.
In states with so-called child access prevention (CAP) laws, the suicide rate for youths aged 14 to 17 was 8.3 percent lower than in states without such laws, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The report appears in the Aug. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the 10-to-19 age group, and as recently as 1994 seven of every 10 teen suicides involved firearms, the report noted. The decreased suicide rate in states with CAP laws was entirely due to a reduction in firearm deaths, the researchers said.
That is because a gun "is about the most lethal form of suicide," and "a large proportion of teen suicides are due to a kind of fleeting emotion," said study co-author Daniel W. Webster, co-director of the Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
If a gun is not available, a teenager in agony because of a failed exam or a breakup with a sweetheart might seek an alternative method of suicide, but "pills very rarely are successful," Webster said.
Eighteen states have CAP laws, which generally make it a crime to store firearms in a way that make them accessible to young people, often requiring that the guns be locked up. Such laws are among the less controversial issues in the field of gun control, Webster said.
"The vast majority of people support them, and the current administration and the current Attorney General, John Ashcroft, are funding a national campaign to encourage the safe storage of firearms," Webster said.
In addition, "even in states with a large population of gun owners and strong gun groups, you still see these laws passed," he said. States with CAP laws include Virginia, Nevada and Texas, Webster said, adding, "It's really all over the map."
The first CAP law was enacted in Florida in 1989. Since then, the laws have prevented a total of 333 suicides among teenagers, the researchers estimated.
"In 2001 alone, we estimate that there were 35 fewer suicides among this group in the 18 states with CAP laws than would have been expected without the laws," they said.
The researchers also studied the effect of two other youth-focused gun laws, setting a minimum age for purchase or possession of a firearm. They found no association between such laws and the incidence of teen suicide.
"This finding should not be particularly surprising, since other research indicates that most youth firearm suicides involve guns already owned by the victims' parents," said a statement by study co-author Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Hopkins.
More information
Read about how CAP laws work from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Cory Hojka
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 8:14 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "Laws Limiting Gun Access Cut Teen
Suicides"
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/08/03/hscout520475.html
Laws
Limiting Gun Access Cut Teen Suicides
By Ed Edelson
HealthDay
Reporter
TUESDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDayNews) -- Laws designed to keep guns
away from young
people reduce the risk that teenagers will kill themselves, a
study finds.
In states with so-called child access prevention (CAP) laws,
the suicide rate
for youths aged 14 to 17 was 8.3 percent lower than in
states without such
laws, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health.
The report appears in the Aug. 4 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Suicide is the third
leading cause of death in the 10-to-19 age group, and as
recently as 1994
seven of every 10 teen suicides involved firearms, the report
noted. The
decreased suicide rate in states with CAP laws was entirely due to
a
reduction in firearm deaths, the researchers said.
That is because a
gun "is about the most lethal form of suicide," and "a large
proportion of
teen suicides are due to a kind of fleeting emotion," said study
co-author
Daniel W. Webster, co-director of the Hopkins Center for Gun Policy
and
Research.
If a gun is not available, a teenager in agony because of a
failed exam or a
breakup with a sweetheart might seek an alternative method
of suicide, but
"pills very rarely are successful," Webster
said.
Eighteen states have CAP laws, which generally make it a crime to
store firearms
in a way that make them accessible to young people, often
requiring that the
guns be locked up. Such laws are among the less
controversial issues in the
field of gun control, Webster said.
"The
vast majority of people support them, and the current administration and
the
current Attorney General, John Ashcroft, are funding a national campaign
to
encourage the safe storage of firearms," Webster said.
In addition,
"even in states with a large population of gun owners and strong
gun groups,
you still see these laws passed," he said. States with CAP laws
include
Virginia, Nevada and Texas, Webster said, adding, "It's really all over
the
map."
The first CAP law was enacted in Florida in 1989. Since then, the
laws have
prevented a total of 333 suicides among teenagers, the researchers
estimated.
"In 2001 alone, we estimate that there were 35 fewer suicides
among this group
in the 18 states with CAP laws than would have been expected
without the laws,"
they said.
The researchers also studied the effect
of two other youth-focused gun laws,
setting a minimum age for purchase or
possession of a firearm. They found no
association between such laws and the
incidence of teen suicide.
"This finding should not be particularly
surprising, since other research
indicates that most youth firearm suicides
involve guns already owned by the
victims' parents," said a statement by
study co-author Jon Vernick, co-director
of the Center for Gun Policy and
Research at Hopkins.
---------------------------------------
http://www.jhsph.edu/gunpolicy/key_research_fac.html
UNINTENTIONAL
AND UNDETERMINED FIREARM RELATED DEATHS: A PREVENTABLE DEATH
ANALYSIS FOR
THREE SAFETY DEVICES
Vernick JS, O'Brien M, Hepburn LM, Johnson SB, Webster
DW, Hargarten SW
Injury Prevention 2003;9: 307-11.
This epidemiologic
study analyzes the effect of using three safety devices
(personalization,
loaded chamber indicators or LCIs, and magazine safeties) on
the
preventability of gun deaths that are unintentional or undetermined
intent.
The study found that 44% of the deaths analyzed could have been
prevented by at
least one of the safety devices. Preventability varied by
safety device - the
use of personalization was associated with the highest
preventability (37%),
followed by LCIs (20%) and magazine safeties (4%). Had
all these guns been
equipped with all three safety devices, more than 400
lives could have been
saved in
2000.
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