Suicidal ideation similar between gun owners, non-gun owners

Suicidal ideation appears similar between gun owners and non-gun owners when the probability of suicide is low, but when the probability rises, gun owners were less likely to endorse active means, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.

Craig J. Bryan, PsyD, the director of the division of recovery and resilience, as well as the trauma and suicide prevention programs at Ohio State University, and colleagues conducted a survey study, using cross-sectional online survey data from American adults via Qualtrics Panels.

“We surveyed over 10,000 U.S. adults and asked them about recent thoughts of suicide and suicidal behaviors,” Bryan told Healio. “We then grouped people who had similar patterns of responses and compared the responses between gun owners and non-gun owners.”

Of 10,625 participants who completed the survey, 9,153 responded as to whether they owned a firearm or not. Of those, 2,773 (30.3%) reported owning a gun, and 6,380 reported not owning a gun. Compared with non-gun owners, gun owners were more likely to be male (1,779; 64.2%), white (2,090; 75.4%) and have a military background (772; 27.8%).

Bryan said the survey identified one subgroup that was more likely to recently have attempted suicide.

“In this high-risk subgroup, gun owners were much less likely than non-gun owners to report that there were having thoughts about wanting to die or wanting to end their lives,” Bryan said. “All of the gun owners in this group said they had been thinking about ways or methods to attempt suicide, though.”

The most common method used to screen for suicide risk is to ask people if they are thinking about suicide and wanting to kill themselves, Bryan said. However, half of those who die by suicide deny having these thoughts.

“Our results suggest suicidal thinking may take different forms,” Bryan said. “We may be missing a lot of people because we’re asking the wrong questions. This study suggests it may be more useful to ask gun owners if they have been thinking about ways or methods to kill themselves instead of asking them if they are thinking about suicide.”

According to Bryan, gun owners may visually see themselves attempting suicide, but they may not tell themselves that they are suicidal.

“We can’t say for sure based on this one study, but one possibility is that gun owners are more likely to have visual or imagery-based thoughts of suicide instead of having verbal thoughts of suicide,” he said.