Almost one-quarter of U.S. firearm suicides may occur outside the home, study finds

A growing number of firearm suicides in the United States occur outside the home, most commonly in motor vehicles, according to a study published online in JAMA Network Open.

Camerin Rencken, Ph.D., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues sought to quantify and describe firearm suicides that occur outside the home in a cross-sectional study.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Violent Death Reporting System were used to analyze firearm suicide locations in the United States. Data from all reporting states between 2003 and 2021 were included, focusing on firearm suicides identified by weapon type and manner of death.

The study included 172,779 individuals who died by suicide (86.7% male and 89.2% white). The researchers found that 21.9% of firearm suicides occurred outside the home, with the most common location being motor vehicles (27.3%).

Across demographic groups, there were proportional differences: a higher percentage of male versus female decedents died outside the home (22.8% versus 16.9%), and a higher proportion of Asian or Pacific Islander and Black versus white decedents died outside the home (33.2% and 27.0% versus 21.4%, respectively). The proportion of deaths outside the home was smallest and greatest among decedents in the South and West, respectively (18.8% and 25.1%).

“This research has identified an additional opportunity for clinicians, public health officials, and policymakers to broaden their suicide prevention strategies by addressing a wider set of locations where firearm suicides take place,” the authors write.

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