Conservative Gun Enthusiasts at Higher Risk of Suicide: Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, and West Virginia Most at Risk

Gun-enthusiasts may not be as happy as they appear in the movies. The John Wayne cowboy may always have a trusty rifle and concubine by his side, but a new study shows that higher rates of gun ownership meshed with political conservatism put people at a greater risk for suicide.

According to a study at the University of California, Riverside conducted by sociology professor Augustine J. Kposowa, firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide by males, with poisoning the most common among females. Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death for all ages in the United States in 2007, the most recent year for which complete mortality data was available at the time of the study. It was the seventh leading cause of death for males and the 15th leading cause of death for females.

Kposowa, who has studied suicide and its causes for two decades, analyzed mortality data from the U.S. Multiple Cause of Death Files for 2000 through 2004 and combined individual-level data with state-level information. Firearm ownership, conservatism (measured by percentage voting for former President George W. Bush in the 2000 election), suicide rate, church adherence, and the immigration rate were measured at the state level. He analyzed data relating to 131,636 individual suicides, which were then compared to deaths from natural causes (excluding homicides and accidents), according to UCR Today. 

"Many studies show that of all suicide methods, firearms have the highest case fatality, implying that an individual who selects this technique has a very low chance of survival," Kposowa said. Guns are simply the most efficient method of suicide, he added.

Primarily, states with the highest rates of gun ownership - for example, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, and West Virginia - also tended to have the highest suicide rates. These states were also carried overwhelmingly by George Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

The study also found that:

• The odds of committing suicide were 2.9 times higher among men than women
• Non-Hispanic whites were nearly four times as likely to kill themselves as Non-Hispanic African Americans
• The odds of suicide among Hispanics were 2.3 times higher than the odds among Non-Hispanic African Americans
• Divorced and separated individuals were 38 percent more likely to kill themselves than those who were married
• A higher percentage of church-goers at the state level reduced individual suicide risk.

The study, "Association of suicide rates, gun ownership, conservatism and individual suicide risk," was published online in the journal Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology in February.