Misleading Account of Firearms & Suicide

(from motherjones.com)

A recent publication in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open, “Household Firearm Ownership and Firearm Mortality”, purports to show a relationship between a firearm being present in a household and suicide involving a firearm. To their credit, the authors note other data suggesting that firearm ownership is unrelated to violence involving a gun, and indeed firearm ownership may reduce the homicide rate.

The JAMA report has a number of limitations, of course, that undercut the authors’ conclusions. The data are from thousands of people and there is no check to make sure that the information the authors rely on is accurate. It is well known that for a variety of reasons individuals who own guns legally may be reluctant to disclose that fact, and certainly those who possess them illegally may want to keep mum. In looking at suicide rates the authors ignore other important information in predicting suicide, such as previous suicide attempts. It is well recognized that with a large number of subjects, a very small association can be found to be statistically significant although meaningless from a practical perspective.

Throughout it is implied that those who  report gun ownership are speaking of the guns  that are used in suicides. There’s no way to know if this is true, even apart from the great uncertainty around illegally possessed guns.

The authors are careful to not say that a high rate of households reporting guns being present causes people to use a firearm in committing suicide, but as is typically the case, those who write about what they believe to be the negative effects of gun ownership present findings in a way that leaves the reader assuming there is a causal relationship.

What is perhaps a more profound issue is revealed by considering the funders of this study and where it appears. 

JAMA is a publication of the AMA. Unfortunately, this misguided organization has taken the position that our Second Amendment rights are somehow “a public health problem.” This leaves one wondering if freedom of religion, trial by jury and so on might become public health problems as well. It is hard not to see the connection between this distorted view and publishing material that seeks to show that firearm ownership is bad.

The study the authors report on is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Its president is quite clear as to his contempt for the Second Amendment. Here is a recent sample of his emotionally determined thinking:

“Gun violence is a uniquely American plague. In a nation with more guns than people, we experience this violence every hour of every day. The more than 45,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. in 2020—the vast majority of which were suicides and murders—is the highest number on record . . . As a Foundation focused on health, we know that achieving a Culture of Health where children can thrive and live up to their full potential is impossible without addressing the scourge of gun deaths that affects too many communities.“

What conclusion should we draw? In these hostile waters, we should always mount a watch.

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Tom E Gift, MD

—Thomas E. Gift, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist practicing in Rochester, New York, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical School, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

All DRGO articles by Thomas E. Gift, MD