Association between handgun purchase and mortality from firearm injury

Inj Prev. 2003 Mar;9(1):48-52. doi: 10.1136/ip.9.1.48.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the association between mortality from violent or firearm related injury and previous handgun purchase.

Methods: Case-control study of 213 466 Californians ages 21 and older who died in 1998; cases were the 4728 violent or firearm related injury deaths, with subsets by specific cause and means of death, and controls were the 208 738 non-injury deaths. The exposure of interest was the purchase of a handgun during 1996-98. The main outcome measure was the odds ratio for handgun purchase, adjusted for age, sex, race, education, and marital status.

Results: Handgun purchase was more common among persons dying from suicide (odds ratio (OR) 6.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.7 to 8.1) or homicide (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.6 to 3.7), and particularly among those dying from gun suicide (OR 12.5; 95% CI 10.4 to 15.0) or gun homicide (OR 3.3; 95% CI 2.1 to 5.3), than among controls. No such differences were seen for non-gun suicide or homicide. Among women, those dying from gun suicide were much more likely than controls to have purchased a handgun (OR 109.8; 95% CI 61.6 to 195.7). Handgun purchasers accounted for less than 1% of the study population but 2.4% of gun homicides, 14.2% of gun suicides, and 16.7% of unintentional gun deaths. Gun suicide made up 18.9% of deaths among purchasers but only 0.6% of deaths among non-purchasers.

Conclusion: Among adults who died in California in 1998, those dying from violence were more likely than those dying from non-injury causes to have purchased a handgun.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • California / epidemiology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • Firearms / statistics & numerical data*
  • Homicide / statistics & numerical data
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Marital Status / statistics & numerical data
  • Middle Aged
  • Odds Ratio
  • Sex Factors
  • Suicide / statistics & numerical data
  • Violence / statistics & numerical data
  • Wounds, Gunshot / ethnology
  • Wounds, Gunshot / mortality*