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Abstract
Background Firearm suicides are more prevalent in cities than many recognise. Extant research—though conducted at different geographic levels or on different types of firearm deaths—suggests that firearms dealers may play a role in city firearm suicides. This study examines the relationship between rates of city firearms dealers and firearm suicides.
Methods Data from the Center for Disease Control’s National Vital Statistical System and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Federal Firearms Listing included 284 cities in 2015–2021. Types, locations and rates of firearms dealers as well as firearm suicide rates were examined. Poisson regression models tested associations between city firearms dealer and firearm suicide rates, controlling for city characteristics. Models were stratified by city size and poverty level, and results were examined for firearms dealers overall and by type.
Results Firearms dealer rates were highest in cities in the Midwest, South and West; with populations less than 500 000; and with the most veterans or white residents. Firearm suicide rates were 3.4 times higher in cities with the highest firearms dealer rates (9.8 per 100 000 population) than the lowest (2.9). In adjusted regression models, city firearms dealer rates were associated with firearm suicide rates, and results depended on dealer type, city size and poverty level.
Discussion and conclusions City firearms dealers play an important role in access to lethal means, especially in small cities and through pawnshops. These findings hold implications for how cities can engage firearms dealers as suicide prevention partners.
- Suicide/Self?Harm
- Firearm
- Urban
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.
Footnotes
Collaborators N/A.
Contributors MJO, the lead author and guarantor, led the project planning, manuscript writing and revisions. JS led data management and analysis. SB-S contributed to project planning and provided substantive manuscript contributions. BK and BRS both assisted with data acquisition and report drafting. KRF led methodological strategy and contributed to revisions.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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