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Trigger warning: the causal impact of gun ownership on suicide

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  • David C. Vitt
  • Alexander F. McQuoid
  • Charles Moore
  • Stephen Sawyer

Abstract

With a growing debate over tighter firearm regulations, we consider an important social consequence of increased firearm access: increased firearm suicides. Using data from the federal criminal background check system, we consider the impact of firearm ownership on firearm suicide rates. To deal with concerns of identification, we instrument for firearm background checks with state-year-level Google search intensity for phrases that reflect fear of future gun shortages and learning about the constitutional rights of firearm owners. We find that an increase in firearm ownership has a sizable and statistically significant impact on firearm suicide rates. A 10% increase in firearm ownership increases firearm suicide rates by approximately 3%, which is five times larger than non-instrumented estimates. Furthermore, we find no effect of gun ownership on non-firearm suicide rates, suggesting our findings are not simply capturing a suicide method substitution effect. The results are consistent with a variety of validity and robustness tests. Our results make clear the link between firearm ownership and firearm suicide rates, which have increased dramatically over the last decade.

Suggested Citation

  • David C. Vitt & Alexander F. McQuoid & Charles Moore & Stephen Sawyer, 2018. "Trigger warning: the causal impact of gun ownership on suicide," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(53), pages 5747-5765, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:50:y:2018:i:53:p:5747-5765
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2018.1488064
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    Cited by:

    1. Chad D. Cotti & Tessie Krishna & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Erik T. Nesson & Joseph J. Sabia, 2025. "Nicotine Vaping and Youth Mental Health: New Evidence from E-Cigarette Regulations," NBER Working Papers 33917, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David C Vitt, 2020. "Estimating the impact of e-commerce on retail exit and entry using Google Trends," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(1), pages 679-688.
    3. Balestra, Simone, 2018. "Gun prevalence and suicide," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 163-177.
    4. Saccal, Alessandro, 2022. "A Nash equilibrium against gun control," MPRA Paper 115213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Joshua Ball & Günther G. Schulze & Nikita Zakharov, 2024. "Ain’t no Silver Bullet? Gun Laws and Suicide in the US," Discussion Paper Series 51 JEL Classification: I1, Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg, revised Dec 2024.
    6. Jessica Jumee Kim & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2022. "Proxies for legal firearm prevalence," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 239-273, September.

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