Few Americans understand that a gun in the home increases the risk of completed suicide

While the overwhelming majority of firearms researchers and suicide experts agree that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide, that knowledge has yet to reach the general population.  HICRC’s national firearm survey finds that only 15% of Americans agree that the presence of a firearm in the home increases the risk for suicide, and only 30% of health care practitioners agree.  Clearly more education about the scientific findings is needed.  The article “Public opinion about the relationship between firearm availability and suicide: results from a national survey” by Andrew Conner, Deborah Azrael and Matthew Miller appears as a brief research report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.