Epidemiologic trends in firearm suicides among adolescents

Abstract

Total and firearm suicide rates in the United States from 1933 to 1982 were examined by 5-year age groups for males and females 10-24 years of age. Both total and firearm suicide rates increased in all groups from low points in the 1950s until the 1970s. Rates continued to climb for young people 10-19 years of age, but declined for 20- to 24-year-olds. The proportion of the total suicide rate due to firearms increased from approximately half in the 1930s to nearly two-thirds in the early 1980s. In all three age groups, female suicides used firearms in nearly the same proportion as males. Whether or not the increasing availability of firearms is one of the many causes of the rise in young suicides is unknown.