@article{ref1,
title="The impact of state firearm laws on homicide and suicide deaths in the USA, 1991-2016: a panel study",
journal="Journal of general internal medicine",
year="2019",
author="Siegel, Michael and Pahn, Molly and Xuan, Ziming and Fleegler, Eric and Hemenway, David A.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Firearm injuries are a major cause of mortality in the USA. Few recent studies have simultaneously examined the impact of multiple state gun laws to determine their independent association with homicide and suicide rates. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between state firearm laws and overall homicide and suicide rates at the state level across all 50 states over a 26-year period. <br><br>DESIGN: Using a panel design, we analyzed the relationship between 10 state firearm laws and total, age-adjusted homicide and suicide rates from 1991 to 2016 in a difference-in-differences, fixed effects, multivariable regression model. There were 1222 observations for homicide analyses and 1300 observations for suicide analyses. PARTICIPANTS: Populations of all US states. MAIN MEASURES: The outcome measures were the annual age-adjusted rates of homicide and suicide in each state during the period 1991-2016. We controlled for a wide range of state-level factors. KEY RESULTS: Universal background checks were associated with a 14.9% (95% CI, 5.2-23.6%) reduction in overall homicide rates, violent misdemeanor laws were associated with a 18.1% (95% CI, 8.1-27.1%) reduction in homicide, and &quot;shall issue&quot; laws were associated with a 9.0% (95% CI, 1.1-17.4%) increase in homicide. These laws were significantly associated only with firearm-related homicide rates, not non-firearm-related homicide rates. None of the other laws examined were consistently related to overall homicide or suicide rates. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: We found a relationship between the enactment of two types of state firearm laws and reductions in homicide over time. However, further research is necessary to determine whether these associations are causal ones.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0884-8734",
doi="10.1007/s11606-019-04922-x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-04922-x"
}