Examining the Impact of Minimum Handgun Purchase Age and Background Check Legislation on Young Adult Suicide in the United States, 1991–2020

Objectives. To examine the independent and joint effects of state legislation on minimum age for purchasing handguns and background checks on the suicide of young adults aged 18 to 20 years. Methods. We used negative binomial regressions with fixed effects for year and generalized estimating equatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 114; no. 8; pp. 805 - 813
Main Authors: Fridel, Emma E., Zimmerman, Gregory M., Arrigo, Shayna R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States American Public Health Association 01.08.2024
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adults
Age
Age Factors
Female
Firearm laws & regulations
Firearms
Firearms - legislation & jurisprudence
Firearms - statistics & numerical data
Health Law
Humans
Injury/Emergency Care/Violence
Legislation
Male
Minimum age
Mortality
Purchasing
Research & Analysis
Small arms
States
Suicide
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
Suicide - trends
Suicides & suicide attempts
United States - epidemiology
Young Adult
Young adults
United States
United States > US
ISSN:0090-0036, 1541-0048, 1541-0048
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Objectives. To examine the independent and joint effects of state legislation on minimum age for purchasing handguns and background checks on the suicide of young adults aged 18 to 20 years. Methods. We used negative binomial regressions with fixed effects for year and generalized estimating equations for state to estimate the effects of state legislation on annual counts of firearm, nonfirearm, and total young adult suicides in all 50 US states from 1991 to 2020. Results. Minimum age laws decreased the incidence rate of firearm suicide among young adults, an effect that was amplified in states with permit to purchase laws; there was no effect on the nonfirearm or total suicide rate. Permit to purchase laws significantly decreased the young adult firearm suicide incidence rate by 39% (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.51, 0.74) and the overall suicide incidence rate by 14% (IRR = 0.86; 95% CI = 0.75, 0.99), with no effect on the nonfirearm suicide rate. Conclusions. Permit to purchase laws are a more promising avenue for reducing young adult suicides than are age-based restrictions. ( Am J Public Health. 2024;114(8):805–813. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307689 )
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E. E. Fridel conceptualized the study, cleaned the data, conducted the analyses, and wrote the article. G. M. Zimmerman interpreted the analyses and wrote the article. S. R Arrigo obtained and cleaned the data. All authors critically reviewed and commented on the article.
CONTRIBUTORS
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2024.307689