Firearm Suicide Rates in the U.S.

This project aims to investigate the firearm suicide rates in the United States during the period between 2010 and 2020. The study includes analyzing the differences in suicide rates with and without the use of firearms, studying the rates of gun owners who committed suicide, and estimating the sales of firearms during the specified timeframe.

Data Process

The dataset for the number of gun owners was collected from BuzzFeed News Github.

• Collected information on suicide rates using a firearm through a Kaggle dataset.
• See the references section to see the original datasets.

How was the data used?

• Background checks were used for the number of gun owners.
• Sales were estimated by background checks for each firearm type.
• Long gun, handgun, and other = 1 sale; multiple = 2 sales.

Charts

See Tableau to view my interactive dashboard.

The percentage in each state is calculated by firearm suicide / total suicides.

The top 3 states with the highest firearm suicides are:

• Wyoming (70%) - Gun owners (.02%)
• Mississippi (69%) - Gun owners (.15%)
• Alabama (68%) - Gun owners (.15%)

According to the data above, the number of individuals who own guns increased by 43% between 2010 and 2020. Additionally, the percentage of firearm-related suicides among gun owners has increased from 0.2% to 1.8% over the course of a decade.

The firearm sales are an estimation according to NICS background checks. See references to view the original data.

Top 3 states with high firearm sales:

• Texas (12,540,588)
• Florida (10,144,901)
• California (9,654,688)

Conclusion

Based on the research findings, firearms were the primary weapon used for suicide between 2010 and 2020. Despite a significant increase in gun ownership and firearm sales during this period, it was evident that legal gun owners did not contribute significantly to the high percentage of firearm suicides in the United States. However, it remains unclear how non-legal gun owners obtain firearms for suicide.

References

Costa, W. (2023). U.S. Firearm Suicide Rates, 1949-2020. https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/williecosta/firearm-suicide-rates-1949-2020

Singer-Vine, J. (n.d.). NICS Firearm Background Checks. Github. https://github.com/BuzzFeedNews/nics-firearm-background-checks

Contact

Mider Thao - miderthao@gmail.com - www.linkedin.com/in/miderthao