Women are increasingly using guns to die by suicide in the United States, challenging long-held assumptions that they will usually resort to less lethal means, according to data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gun-related suicide is most often associated with men, largely because men are more likely than women to purchase guns and to die by suicide. But in 2020, gun-related suicides surpassed poisoning and suffocation for the first time among women, and have continued to rise since then.
Suicide attempts with guns are far more lethal than those by other means, and firearm injuries now account for more than half of all suicide deaths.
The findings, drawn from federal health data, showed that in 2022, 20 out of every million women used a gun to die by suicide, up from 14 women in 2002. This marks a 43 percent increase. The report also found that suicide rates have risen among women over the past two decades.
“If we rely on who we think a gun owner is going to look like or how they’re going to act or vote or whatever, then we’re going to miss a lot of women who are dying,” said Rosie Bauder, a clinical assistant professor at Ohio State University who is studying the attitudes and behaviors of women gun owners.
Experts say there is not a single reason for the shift in how women are dying by suicide, but noted that easy access to guns is a contributing factor.
“We know that even just the presence of a firearm in a home increases the risk that somebody will die by suicide using that firearm,” Dr. Bauder said.
The rate of suicide by firearm is highest in states with the fewest gun laws (108 people per one million people) and lower in the states with the most gun laws (49 per one million people), according to an analysis by the health-focused nonprofit KFF.
In addition, a 2021 study found that firearm sales increased significantly in 2020 and 2021, and that those who purchased a firearm for the first time during that surge had a higher risk of suicidal thoughts. About half of the first-time buyers were women.
At the time, people said they bought the guns at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time of great uncertainty. “Firearms have been really effectively marketed as a tool to keep you safe in an unsafe world,” said Mike Anestis, the executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, who led the research.
But the purchase of millions of guns means the “opportunity for people to die has gone up dramatically,” he added.
The new data showed that among males, the gun-related suicide rate increased between 2006 and 2022. Guns have consistently remained the leading means of suicide for men over the last two decades.
One bright spot in the data showed that for males ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate decreased between 2020 and 2022.
“It gives me a little bit of hope,” said Matthew F. Garnett, an injury epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics and the lead author of the new study.
Although there have been fluctuations over the years, the study found that overall, the suicide rate among all ages and genders has risen between 2002 and 2022. It is now back at the highest rate since 1941, first reached in 2018.
“When we’re thinking about suicide trends in the U.S. and what to do about it, our impulse is to think, ‘Well, what’s changed about why people want to die or what’s made people want to die more?” Dr. Anestis said. “But what I think about is what’s changed in their environment that’s made it more likely that they select a method that’s going to kill them.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.
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