Background

Alcohol and firearms are a dangerous combination and are commonly involved in suicide in the United States. This has only increased in importance as a public health issue as alcohol drinking, firearm sales, and suicides in the United States have all increased since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. State alcohol policies and state firearm policies might impact alcohol and firearm related suicide, but it is unknown how these policies specifically relate to these suicides, or how these policies might interact with one another.

研究

我们进行了一项横断面研究，以评估2015年涉及酒精，枪支或两者兼而有之的酒精政策，枪支政策和美国自杀之间的关系。我们使用以前由我们团队创建和验证的酒精政策量表来评估酒精政策和吉福德法律中心的枪支法律记分卡来量化枪支政策。自杀数据来自国家暴力死亡报告系统。州和个人级别的Gee Poisson和Logistic回归模型评估了政策与枪支和/或涉及酒精的自杀的关系，其滞后时间为1年。

Results

较高的酒精和枪支法律分数与涉及酒精或枪支的自杀率的发病率和几率降低有关。

在2015年美国，酒精和/或枪支涉及自杀的63.9％。较高的酒精和枪支法律分数与涉及酒精或枪支的自杀率的发病率和几率降低有关。例如，酒精政策评分增加了10％，涉及酒精或枪支的自杀率降低了28％。同样，枪支政策评分增加了10％，涉及枪支的自杀率下降了14％。

这些关系对于涉及酒精和枪支的自杀是相似的。例如，酒精政策评分增加了10％，涉及酒精和枪支的自杀率降低了52％。枪支政策评分增加了10％，涉及酒精和枪支的自杀率降低了26％。

In addition, we found synergistic effects between alcohol and firearm policies, such that states with restrictive policies for both alcohol and firearms had the lowest odds of suicides involving alcohol and firearms.

Conclusions and next steps

Results of the study suggest that laws restricting firearms ownership among high-risk individuals, including those who drink excessively or have experienced alcohol-related criminal offenses, may reduce firearm suicides.

We found restrictive alcohol and firearm policies to be associated with lower rates and odds of suicides involving alcohol or firearms, and alcohol and firearms and our research suggests that alcohol and firearm policies may be a promising means by which to reduce suicide. These protective relationships were particularly striking for suicides involving both alcohol and firearms as well as in the strong protective interaction between alcohol and firearm policy variables, particularly for suicides involving alcohol. These findings, taken in the context of the broader literature, also suggest that laws restricting firearms ownership among high-risk individuals (so-called ‘may issue’ laws), including those who drink excessively or have experienced alcohol-related criminal offenses, may reduce firearm suicides.

Because this was a cross-sectional analysis, this should be considered a hypothesis-generating study that cannot prove a causal association between alcohol or firearm policies and suicide. In future research, studies using multiple years of policy and suicide data would strengthen causal inference.

Stronger alcohol and firearm policies are a promising means to prevent a leading and increasing cause of death in the U.S. The findings further suggest that strengthening both policy areas may have a synergistic impact on reducing suicides involving either alcohol, firearms, or both.