Year: 2003 Source: Annals of Emergency Medicine, v.41, no.6, (June 2003), p.771-782 SIEC No: 20100153

The hypothesis that having a gun in the home is a risk factor for adults to be killed or to kill themselves was tested. Two case-control analyses were based on American samples of subjects 18 years of age & older. 10 living matched controls for each case subject were drawn from the 1994 National Health Interview Survey. The suicide sample consisted of 1959 subjects & 13535 controls. The adjusted odds ratio for suicide was 3.44 for persons with a gun at home. However, further analysis revealed that having a firearm in the home was a risk factor for suicide by firearm but was inversely associated with suicide by other methods. Additional research is called for to address study limitations & to better understand the implications of firearm ownership. (66 refs.)