Rethink Buying A Gun If You Want To Live, UW Research Says

SEATTLE, WA - A new University of Washington study reveals that Americans don't know that suicide causes more deaths than homicide. This misconception can actually be deadly, according to the research, because a gun bought for protection from crime might end up being used in a suicide.

According to Centers for Disease Control statistics, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people age 15 to 34 in 2016 with just over 13,000 deaths. About 10,500 died by homicide in that age group in 2016.

Also, according to the CDC, 218,000 people committed suicide with a gun between 2006 and 2016.

"This research indicates that in the scope of violent death, the majority of U.S. adults don’t know how people are dying," UW Department of Epidemiology student Erin Morgan, who was a lead author on the study, told UW News. "Knowing that the presence of a firearm increases the risk for suicide, and that firearm suicide is substantially more common than firearm homicide, may lead people to think twice about whether or not firearm ownership and their storage practices are really the safest options for them and their household."

The research was conducted by the University of Washington, Northeastern University, and Harvard University and was published Tuesday. The researchers used data from the 2015 National Firearms Survey, which asked U.S. residents to rank the most common causes of death where they live. Homicide was ranked higher than suicide, according to the research, even though data showed suicide was much more common.

The full study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

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