The individual level relates to how biological and personal history factors affect an individual’s risk for suicide.
Access to firearms is a critical personal history factor and interventions at this level educate individuals about why it is important to separate oneself from lethal means.
The relationship level explores the close relationships that may influence an individual’s risk for suicide.
Interventions at this level focus on encouraging engagement and support by other individuals in the temporary separation of firearms from the at-risk individual.
The community level examines how the social and physical environments are associated with risk and protective factors for suicide.
Interventions at this level aim to influence the community environment, such as engaging firearm owners about suicide prevention in the community.
The societal level explores how policy and culture influence risk for suicide.
Interventions at this level include developing and enacting policies that reduce access to firearms by high-risk individuals.
Suicide is a public health crisis. Firearms are the most lethal and most commonly used suicide method in the United States. A multilevel approach for suicide prevention that addresses access to firearms can save lives.
There are effective, evidence-based interventions for firearm suicide prevention. Our approach organizes these interventions by applying the social ecological model. We focus on four levels of intervention (societal, community, relationship, and individual) to reduce access to firearms by individuals when they are at an elevated risk for suicide.
To learn more, click on each level of intervention for educational materials, initiatives, research, and resources.
More than 23,000 Americans die by firearm suicide every year – 64 every single day. Due to the high lethality and easy accessibility of firearms, firearms are used in half of all US suicides. In order to effectively reduce suicide in America, we must address access to lethal means.
Firearm suicide prevention interventions that reduce access to firearms at different levels of the social ecological model (SEM) framework include: extreme risk laws, voluntary self-prohibition policies, policies that reduce the availability of firearms, gun shop projects, lethal means safety counseling, and safer storage practices.
Safer storage: For at home firearm storage, it is widely recommended to store firearms locked and unloaded, store and lock ammunition separately from firearms, and ensure the key or lock combination is inaccessible to children and any person at elevated risk.
Gun shop projects: Gun Shop Projects build on partnerships between firearms retailers, ranges, and clubs and public health experts. Gun Shop Projects provide retailers, instructors, and customers of all experience levels with firearm suicide prevention educational materials.
Lethal means safety counseling: Lethal means safety counseling is the process that healthcare providers undertake to determine if an individual at risk for suicide has access to lethal means of suicide attempt. The provider then works with the individual and their family or friends to reduce access until the risk of suicide decreases.
Extreme risk laws: Extreme risk laws are evidence-based, bipartisan state policies that temporarily prohibit the purchase and possession of a firearm by persons demonstrating behavioral risk factors for harming themselves or others.
Voluntary self prohibition: Voluntary self-prohibition policies allow individuals to place themselves on a do-not buy list that would place their name into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, prohibiting them from passing a background check to purchase firearms.
Firearm suicide rates vary substantially between states. In 2019, the firearm suicide rate ranged from a high of 19.08 firearm suicides per 100,000 people in Wyoming to a low of 1.71 firearm suicides per 100,000 people in New Jersey.
Click on a state below to learn more about state-specific firearm suicide.
Age-Adjusted Firearm Suicide Rate per 100,000
Notes
This page was last updated March 2021.