On June 13, 2024, the American Journal of Public Health published an editorial written by PHAI’s UnitedOnGuns director, Sarah C. Peck entitled, “Minimum Age Firearm Purchase Laws, By Themselves, Don’t Prevent Youth Suicide,” on the effectiveness of legislative and public health strategies to reduce young adult suicide.
As Sarah notes, 60% of gun mortality in America is from suicides accounting for more than 30,000 deaths annually. While we are legitimately alarmed by the drumbeat of mass shootings terrorizing communities, in terms of population health, suicide is the most significant public health threat from firearms. Getting the policies right to reduce these numbers is of enormous importance. Restrictions on the means for completing suicides, like modifying bridges where suicides have occurred have been found to reduce suicides. Ms. Peck notes that, while increasing the minimum age for firearms purchases or banning private gun sales to young adults would seem to be a commonsense approach to this problem, such policies by themselves only have a minimal impact.
The editorial concerns a study published elsewhere in the issue by Fridel et al. which found that so-called “permit to purchase” laws at the state level that require those seeking to purchase firearms to apply in-person with a state or local law enforcement agency rather than merely complete the instant federal background check through the seller. The authors of the study found that these laws significantly reduce young adult suicide rates in the states that have adopted them.
However, Peck emphasizes the importance of proper hun storage as a means restriction to prevent young adult firearms suicides. Many such suicides are completed using other people’s guns and safe storage is often the very best way to restrict the access to the means for completing a suicide.