Firearm Availability and Storage Practices Among Military Personnel Who Have Thought About Suicide

Authors

Craig J. Bryan, University of UtahFollow
AnnaBelle O. Bryan, University of UtahFollow
Michael D. Anestis, University of Southern MississippiFollow
Lauren Khazem, University of Utah
Julia Harris, University of Utah
Alexis May, Wesleyan University
Cynthia Thomsen, Naval Health Research Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-16-2019

Department

Psychology

Abstract

More than 60% of US military suicides occur at home and involve a firearm. Nearly all military firearm suicides (95%) involve a personally owned firearm. Nonmilitary data indicate that the risk of suicide is 6 times higher in households with a firearm, although this risk may be reduced if the firearms are kept unloaded and/or locked. Because attempts using firearms have very high fatality rates, safe firearm storage practices could be an important component of comprehensive suicide prevention in the military. This study examined associations of firearm ownership and storage practices with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among military personnel.

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2019 Bryan CJ et al. JAMA Network Open.

Publication Title

JAMA Network Open

Volume

2

Issue

8

First Page

1

Last Page

5

Recommended Citation

Bryan, C. J., Bryan, A. O., Anestis, M. D., Khazem, L., Harris, J., May, A., Thomsen, C. (2019). Firearm Availability and Storage Practices Among Military Personnel Who Have Thought About Suicide. JAMA Network Open, 2(8), 1-5.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/16523