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Katashi_itto

(10,175 posts)
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 06:45 PM Dec 2015

Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study

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). Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full

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Waldorf

(654 posts)
1. When I see stories like this I always ask what is the actual percentage of a person committing
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 06:49 PM
Dec 2015

suicide, and how much is the actual increase. Is it 0.1% chance of suicide without firearm and 0.4% chance of suicide with one?

Waldorf

(654 posts)
5. When I visit this site it shows suicide rate in the USA (2013 latest report).
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 07:10 PM
Dec 2015
https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures


Shows 12.6 suicides (all suicides) per 100,000 people. Unless I've screwed up my math (quite possible) that translates to 0.0126%.

That is why I want to see actual numbers, not this ratio stuff.

Snobblevitch

(1,958 posts)
3. When I see studies like this one,
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 07:00 PM
Dec 2015

I wonder about who the people are in these homes. Are they criminals and/or do they associate with criminals? Do they store their guns and ammunition lawfully and safely?

X_Digger

(18,585 posts)
7. This particular study makes no accomodation for criminal activity.
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 11:09 PM
Dec 2015

Drug use was asked about, but not controlled for, nor was it determined whether or not the gun used to kill the person was even their own gun.

So a drug dealer who has a gun and gets shot by someone else is just as valid to this 'study' as a troubled senior who takes his own life with his gun.

It's the Gunnium theory of public health- that guns stick to doorknobs like germs, and attract each other like magnets.

Snobblevitch

(1,958 posts)
8. I don't know what "Gunnium" theory means.
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 11:53 PM
Dec 2015

That is a term in which I have no experience. Would you please enlighten me?

X_Digger

(18,585 posts)
9. My own explanation. Sadly, it hasn't caught on.
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 11:59 PM
Dec 2015

Public health researchers study gun violence like they would a communicable disease. As if firearms were made of a toxic substance, Gunnium, that pollutes an environment and gets stuck on door knobs and toilet seats.

That they will equate a drug dealer being killed by another person's gun with a suicidal person who kills themselves with their own gun only because both had a firearm in the home-- is inconceivable. But damned if they don't total them up that way.

Oh, you have to dig to find it, but check for what they control for when they do the multivariate analysis. More importantly, see what they DO NOT control for.

 

Photographer

(1,142 posts)
4. This won't matter to the gun owners here who read this...
Thu Dec 3, 2015, 07:04 PM
Dec 2015

You see, they are all good and proper gun owners who would never use a gun improperly or become a victim because they know all about guns.

ManiacJoe

(10,136 posts)
10. The biggest problem with that study
Fri Dec 4, 2015, 12:00 AM
Dec 2015

is the inappropriate conclusions people are trying to draw from it.

The study only applies to people who have had a killing in their house.
Most homes with guns do not have any killings in them.
Most homes without guns do not have any killings in them.

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