“I’m not going to tell him what I tell you”: A community-based participatory research approach to understand firearm owner perspectives on suicide prevention

Suicide is the 10th most frequent cause of death in the US  with  47,511  deaths in 2019, of which  23,941  were firearm suicides. Certain subgroups within the general population are at increased risk for firearm suicide, including law enforcement, active-duty military, veterans, persons with post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual minorities, and young people who have adverse childhood experiences such as witnessing domestic violence, being bullied, or sexually assaulted.  Firearm owners are a group of people that require tailored suicide prevention interventions because of their proximity to lethal means as well as the unique cultural and legal factors that exist around gun ownership in the United States. Participatory action research (PAR) methods provide a model for increased community inclusion in research and have been utilized to study suicide prevention with a variety of communities, including firearm owners. Previously, the goals of incorporating community-involved methods into suicide prevention research have included learning about the causes of suicidal ideation and behavior, as they are understood within the affected community, developing interventions that reflect the community’s culture, and testing these interventions to determine their efficacy within the given community. Here we utilized PAR methods to gain an understanding of firearm owners’ perspectives, attitudes, and beliefs about suicide and the prevention of suicide.