IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v101y2011i1p95-103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations in the United States, 1995-2004

Author

Listed:
  • Rodríguez Andrés, Antonio
  • Hempstead, Katherine

Abstract

Objective To empirically assess the impact of firearm regulation on male suicides.Method A negative binomial regression model was applied by using a panel of state level data for the years 1995-2004. The model was used to identify the association between several firearm regulations and male suicide rates.Results Our empirical analysis suggest that firearms regulations which function to reduce overall gun availability have a significant deterrent effect on male suicide, while regulations that seek to prohibit high risk individuals from owning firearms have a lesser effect.Conclusions Restricting access to lethal means has been identified as an effective approach to suicide prevention, and firearms regulations are one way to reduce gun availability. The analysis suggests that gun control measures such as permit and licensing requirements have a negative effect on suicide rates among males. Since there is considerable heterogeneity among states with regard to gun control, these results suggest that there are opportunities for many states to reduce suicide by expanding their firearms regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodríguez Andrés, Antonio & Hempstead, Katherine, 2011. "Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations in the United States, 1995-2004," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 95-103, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:101:y:2011:i:1:p:95-103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016885101000299X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cook, Philip J. & Ludwig, Jens, 2006. "The social costs of gun ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 379-391, January.
    2. Bijou Yang, 1992. "The Economy and Suicide:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 87-99, January.
    3. Miller, M. & Azrael, D. & Hemenway, D., 2002. "Rates of household firearm ownership and homicide across US regions and states, 1988-1997," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(12), pages 1988-1993.
    4. Florentine, Julia Buus & Crane, Catherine, 2010. "Suicide prevention by limiting access to methods: A review of theory and practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1626-1632, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steffen Hurka & Christoph Knill, 2020. "Does regulation matter? A cross‐national analysis of the impact of gun policies on homicide and suicide rates," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 787-803, October.
    2. Christoph Koenig & David Schindler, 2023. "Impulse Purchases, Gun Ownership, and Homicides: Evidence from a Firearm Demand Shock," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1271-1286, September.
    3. Vars, Fredrick E. & Meadows, Benjamin & Edwards, Griffin, 2022. "Slipping Through the Cracks? The Impact of Reporting Mental Health Records to the National Firearm Background Check System," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 52-74.
    4. Zhai, Muxin & Kishan, Ruby P. & Showalter, Dean, 2022. "Social capital and suicidal behaviors: Evidence from the United States counties," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Koenig, Christoph & Schindler, David, 2018. "Impulse Purchases, Gun Ownership and Homicides : Evidence from a Firearm Demand Shock," Discussion Paper 2018-043, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Christoph Koenig & David Schindler, 2018. "Dynamics in Gun Ownership and Crime - Evidence from the Aftermath of Sandy Hook," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 18/694, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    7. Hamlin, Daniel, 2021. "Are gun ownership rates and regulations associated with firearm incidents in American schools? A forty-year analysis (1980–2019)," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Adelaide Baronchelli & Raul Caruso & Roberto Ricciuti, 2022. "Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons: Are embargoes effective?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1336-1361, May.
    9. Marco Sarchiapone & Laura Mandelli & Miriam Iosue & Costanza Andrisano & Alec Roy, 2011. "Controlling Access to Suicide Means," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Balestra, Simone, 2018. "Gun prevalence and suicide," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 163-177.
    11. Choi, Namkee G. & DiNitto, Diana M. & Marti, C. Nathan, 2017. "Youth firearm suicide: Precipitating/risk factors and gun access," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 9-16.
    12. Nathan T. Dollar & Iliya Gutin & Elizabeth M. Lawrence & David B. Braudt & Samuel Fishman & Richard G. Rogers & Robert A. Hummer, 2020. "The persistent southern disadvantage in US early life mortality, 1965‒2014," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(11), pages 343-382.
    13. Lee, Kangoh, 2015. "Federalism, guns, and jurisdictional gun policies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 141-153.
    14. Jessica Jumee Kim & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2022. "Proxies for legal firearm prevalence," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 239-273, September.
    15. S. Towers & B. Amdouni & R. Cordova & K. Funderburk & C. Montalvo & M. Thakur & J. Velazquez-Molina & C. Castillo-Chavez, 2021. "The rising prevalence of weapons in unsafe arming configurations discovered in American airports," Journal of Transportation Security, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katherine Hempstead & Antonio Rodríguez, 2009. "Gun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations, 1995–2004," Development Research Working Paper Series 17/2009, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    2. Chalak, Karim & Kim, Daniel & Miller, Megan & Pepper, John, 2022. "Reexamining the evidence on gun ownership and homicide using proxy measures of ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    3. Matthew Lang, 2016. "State Firearm Sales and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Firearm Background Checks," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 45-68, July.
    4. Kim, Jinho, 2018. "Beyond the trigger: The mental health consequences of in-home firearm access among children of gun owners," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 51-59.
    5. Christoph Koenig & David Schindler, 2018. "Dynamics in Gun Ownership and Crime - Evidence from the Aftermath of Sandy Hook," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 18/694, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    6. Steffen Hurka & Christoph Knill, 2020. "Does regulation matter? A cross‐national analysis of the impact of gun policies on homicide and suicide rates," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 787-803, October.
    7. Philip J. Cook & Jens Ludwig & Adam Samaha, 2010. "Gun Control after "Heller": Litigating against Regulation," NBER Chapters, in: Regulation vs. Litigation: Perspectives from Economics and Law, pages 103-135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Michael J. Seiler & Liuming Yang, 2023. "Gun‐ownership disclosure and localized home prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(6), pages 1399-1436, November.
    9. Hansen, Christian & Liao, Yuan, 2019. "The Factor-Lasso And K-Step Bootstrap Approach For Inference In High-Dimensional Economic Applications," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 465-509, June.
    10. Pandey, Manoj K. & Kaur, Charanjit, 2009. "Investigating suicidal trend and its economic determinants: evidence from India," MPRA Paper 15732, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Hansen, Benjamin & Waddell, Glen R., 2018. "Legal access to alcohol and criminality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 277-289.
    12. Chuanc, Hwei-Lin & Huang, Wei-Chiao, 1997. "Economic and social correlates of regional suicide rates: A pooled cross-section and time-series analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 277-289.
    13. Evans, William N. & Kotowski, Maciej H., 2024. "The demand for protection and the persistently high rates of gun violence among young black males," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    14. Pak, Tae-Young, 2022. "The effects of mass shootings on gun sales: Motivations, mechanisms, policies and regulations," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1148-1164.
    15. David C. Vitt & Alexander F. McQuoid & Charles Moore & Stephen Sawyer, 2018. "Trigger warning: the causal impact of gun ownership on suicide," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(53), pages 5747-5765, November.
    16. Luca, Michael & Malhotra, Deepak & Poliquin, Christopher, 2020. "The impact of mass shootings on gun policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    17. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2011. "Econometric Estimates of Deterrence of the Death Penalty: Facts or Ideology?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 448-478, August.
    18. Evans, William N. & Garthwaite, Craig & Moore, Timothy J., 2022. "Guns and violence: The enduring impact of crack cocaine markets on young black males," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    19. Cook, Philip J. & Ludwig, Jens, 2006. "The social costs of gun ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 379-391, January.
    20. Guha, Brishti, 2013. "Guns and crime revisited," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1-10.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:101:y:2011:i:1:p:95-103. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.
    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy