Gun Violence Citation
August 24, 2015 8:59 AM   Subscribe

Help me find a citation for this statistic about gun violence in the United States.

One of the more compelling arguments I've heard against owning a handgun in one's house for protection is a fact about the two most common scenarios in which a handgun is discharged inside a private residence:

The #1 most common scenario is suicide. The #2 most common scenario is mistaking someone you know for an intruder and accidentally shooting them. Not sure where actual home defense from a burglar/invader falls.

The problem is, I can't find a citation for this. I can find information about firearm use with respect to suicides vs. homicides (suicides are much more common), but I can't find the specific stat about "discharge of handgun in a private residence" that jumped out at me so many years ago.

Bonus points: links to a research paper with this information and methodology, if there is one. I have university-level access so feel free to link to any relevant journal or study.
posted by Ndwright to Society & Culture (6 answers total)
 
From the conclusion of "Risks and Benefits of a Gun in the Home" (PDF) by David Hemenway, published in American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine:
There are real and imaginary situations when it might be beneficial to have a gun in the home. For example, in the Australian film Mad Max, where survivors of the apocalypse seem to have been predominantly psychopathic male bikers, having a loaded gun would seem to be very helpful for survival, and public health experts would probably advise people in that world to obtain guns.

However, for most contemporary Americans, the scientific studies suggest that the health risk of a gun in the home is greater than the benefit. There are no credible studies that indicate otherwise. The evidence is overwhelming that a gun in the home is a risk factor for completed suicide and that gun accidents are most likely to occur in homes with guns. There is compelling evidence that a gun in the home is a risk factor for intimidation and for killing women in their homes, and it appears that a gun in the home may more likely be used to threaten intimates than to protect against intruders. On the potential benefit side, there is no good evidence of a deterrent effect of firearms or that a gun in the home reduces the likelihood or severity of injury during an altercation or break-in.

That said, for the large majority of households, having a gun in the home will not provide either health benefits or costs this year. However, for those households where having a gun or not will matter this year, the evidence indicates that the costs will widely outweigh the benefits. The benefit–cost ratio is especially adverse for women and children in the household. Indeed, after weighing the scientific evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) decided that guns do not belong in households with children:
The AAP recommends that pediatricians incorporate questions about guns into their patient history taking and urge parents who possess guns to remove them, especially handguns, from the home.
I don't know if this is specifically what you're referring to, but the author cites plenty of sources that say similar things.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:19 AM on August 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Here's a few good links:

Slate

From an nih study
posted by chasles at 9:24 AM on August 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Part of the abstract from Am J Epidemiology (2004):

Data from a US mortality follow-back survey were analyzed to determine whether having a firearm in the home increases the risk of a violent death in the home and whether risk varies by storage practice, type of gun, or number of guns in the home. Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.4). They were also at greater risk of dying from a firearm homicide, but risk varied by age and whether the person was living with others at the time of death. The risk of dying from a suicide in the home was greater for males in homes with guns than for males without guns in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 10.4, 95% confidence interval: 5.8, 18.9). Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method (adjusted odds ratio = 31.1, 95% confidence interval: 19.5, 49.6).

Link goes to abstract and the publication is freely available.

I tried to find something more recent - this paper is cited by at least another 100 publications, and I don't want to dig through them all, but drop it into google scholar and see what other publications cite this study if you need to find a more recent publication/study.
posted by Wolfster at 9:28 AM on August 24, 2015


Response by poster: I'm pretty sure the NIH study Chasles links is what I heard paraphrased, though interestingly suicide isn't #1; criminal assault/homicide is #1.

Thanks for the answers, guys!
posted by Ndwright at 9:42 AM on August 24, 2015


Mod note: Couple comments removed. This is neither the place for an argument about the merits of guns nor an argument about comment deletions; please drop it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:43 AM on August 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


The Epidemiology of Firearm Violence in the Twenty-First Century United States, Garen J. Wintemute, Violence Prevention Research Program; Department of Emergency Medicine; University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California 9581 (PDF) notes that
In 2012, there were 32,288 deaths from firearm violence in the United States, including 11,622
homicides and 20,666 suicides...
and that:
... Firearm homicide alone, and by extension firearm violence, was the leading cause of death for Black men ages 15–34 in 2012; unintentional injuries ranked second. Among White and Hispanic men ages 15–34, firearm violence ranked second after unintentional injuries. Firearm violence ranked second as a cause of death among Black women ages 15–2. ...
posted by straw at 10:35 AM on August 24, 2015


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