Gun deaths, injuries spike following gun shows; patients skeptical of link between firearm ownership, suicide risk
When gun shows were held in Nevada, a state with some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country, gun-related deaths and injuries in neighboring California spiked by nearly 70% for at least the next two weeks.
State laws may matter when it comes to preventing firearm injuries and death following gun shows, according to a new study.
Researchers found that when gun shows were held in Nevada, a state with some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country, gun-related deaths and injuries in neighboring California spiked by nearly 70% for at least the next two weeks. When gun shows were held in California, a state with some of the most restrictive gun-control laws, there was no spike in gun deaths or injuries in the state.
The findings were published Oct. 24 by Annals of Internal Medicine.
Using data on 915 gun shows, researchers compared firearm injury rates for the two weeks immediately before and after gun shows held in Nevada (mostly in Reno and Las Vegas) and gun shows held in California between 2005 and 2013. Compared with the two weeks before, postshow firearm injury rates remained stable in regions near California gun shows but increased from 0.67 injury (95% CI, 0.55 to 0.80 injury) to 1.14 injuries (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.30 injuries) per 100,000 people in regions near Nevada shows.
After adjustment for seasonality and clustering, California shows were not associated with increases in local firearm injuries (rate ratio [RR], 0.99; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.02) but Nevada shows were associated with increased injuries in California (RR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.45). The pre-post difference was significantly higher for Nevada shows than California shows (ratio of RRs, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.17 to 2.47). This 70% increase translates to 30 more firearms deaths or injuries in the sparsely populated California border region after 161 Nevada gun shows, the authors wrote.
The Nevada association was driven by significant increases in firearm injuries from interpersonal violence (RR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.01 to 4.89) but corresponded to a small increase in absolute numbers. Nonfirearm injuries served as a negative control and were not associated with California or Nevada gun shows. Results were robust to sensitivity analyses.
According to the authors of an accompanying editorial, these findings suggest that travel to less restrictive states may threaten the effectiveness of firearm laws within California.
“Laws regulating access to guns matter and do make a difference, especially collectively; however, their impact on an individual basis is a somewhat small chip in the granite wall of firearm injuries and deaths,” the editorial said. “The state-by-state nature of these laws, due to the lack of federal legislation, results in barriers to gun access that can be easily breached by a car trip. It does not reduce the importance of the laws but does reduce their impact.”
A second brief research report in the same issue of Annals concluded that the vast majority of Americans do not believe that owning a firearm increases suicide risk.
Researchers used data from a 2015 Web-based survey to analyze respondents' answers to the statement, “Having a gun in the home increases the risk for suicide.” Response options were “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither,” “disagree,” and “strongly disagree.” Of the 3,949 persons who completed the survey, a total of 15.4% reported strongly agreeing or agreeing with the survey statement. The proportion of respondents who agreed with the statement was much higher among clinicians, with one in three agreeing that having a household firearm increases suicide risk. Fewer than 10% of gun owners with children agreed with the statement.
According to the researchers, these findings may reflect broad skepticism about the effectiveness of preventing suicide by reducing access to means of suicide with high case fatality rates. In addition, they noted that their research indicates that too many people in the U.S. don't understand the link between the presence of firearms and a substantially increased risk for death by suicide, despite empirical evidence that a significant relationship exists. The researchers concluded that medical and public health communities need to better educate at-risk patients and clinicians about how and why firearms increase suicide risk.
“Doing so will enable patients and their families to make more informed decisions about how to protect vulnerable members of their households,” they concluded. “Health care providers can play an important role in communicating this message.”
An editorial in Annals asks physicians and other health professionals to help prevent firearm-related harm by signing an online commitment to ask patients about firearms and counsel them to reduce risks.