Citation

Coverdale JH, Roberts LW, Balon R. Acad. Psychiatry 2010; 34(6): 405-408.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, American Psychiatric Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

As the American Medical Association emphasized, guns are the means of a number of injuries and deaths. According to 2007 data, firearm suicides account for approximately 50% of all suicides in the United States alone, and firearm homicides account for approximately 69% of all homicides. Firearms are present in around 35% of all U.S. households. The presence of a firearm in the home is a risk factor for suicide and homicide, although this is not explained by elevated levels of psychopathology in those households.

Moreover, media portrayals of mental illness are frequently characterized by crime and violence, and occasions of mass murder by firearms, although uncommon, can attract widespread and negative media coverage. Preventing any one such occasion should contribute greatly to limiting stigmatizing depictions. One perspective is that many family practitioners and psychiatrists focus almost exclusively on trying to reduce the number of suicides by recognizing and treating mental disorders, while not doing enough to restrict access to lethal means. Evidence suggests that restricting access to lethal methods, at least by legislative initiatives, decreases suicides by those methods.