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Effects of Wisconsin’s handgun waiting period repeal on suicide rates
  1. Stephen N Oliphant
  1. School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University College of Social Science, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
  1. Correspondence to Stephen N Oliphant, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University College of Social Science, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; olipha13{at}msu.edu

Abstract

Objective To estimate the effect of a handgun purchase waiting period repeal on handgun and firearm suicides in Wisconsin.

Methods Data for outcome and predictor variables were obtained for the 1999–2020 study period. Synthetic controls were used to assess the impact of Wisconsin’s waiting period repeal on mean-centred suicide rates. Placebo tests, difference-in-differences regression and augmented synthetic controls supplemented the synthetic control analyses.

Results Postrepeal suicides were more likely to involve handguns than those in the 5 years immediately preceding the repeal (χ² (1, N=8269) = 49.25, p<0.001). The waiting period repeal resulted in an estimated annual increase of 1.1 handgun suicides per 100 000, or roughly 65 handgun suicide deaths per year. Estimates from difference-in-differences regression and augmented synthetic control analyses indicated similar treatment effects. Relative to the synthetic control, firearm suicides increased 6.5% following the repeal.

Conclusion The waiting period repeal in Wisconsin was associated with increases in both handgun and firearm suicides. The findings suggest that waiting periods may be effective means restriction policies to reduce suicide. Additionally, the synthetic control’s ability to closely approximate preintervention handgun suicide trends despite a limited donor pool has implications for future policy analyses.

  • firearm
  • policy
  • ecological study
  • policy analysis
  • mortality

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. The data used in this study are publicly available from the sources listed in the supplemental file, mentioned in the text, and included here: CDC WONDER, the US Census Bureau (including the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey), the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2022-044719

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. The data used in this study are publicly available from the sources listed in the supplemental file, mentioned in the text, and included here: CDC WONDER, the US Census Bureau (including the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey), the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @OliphantSN

    • Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was first published. The open access licence has been updated to CC BY.

    • Contributors SNO confirms sole responsibility for the study conception and design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, and manuscript preparation. SNO is responsible for the overall content as guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.