Firearm-Related Suicides Similar in Rural and Urban Areas, Homicide Rates Higher in Urban Areas

A new study compared firearm-related homicides and suicides by youth in rural versus urban southeastern Wisconsin counties. It revealed that suicide rates were similar in rural and urban areas and confirmed that the homicide rate was much higher in urban areas.

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin's Firearm Injury Center looked at data from 1994 through 1996 on male homicide and suicide victims, aged 15 to 24, to determine differences in death rates as well as the firearms used.

"People are often surprised to learn, for instance, that two thirds of the firearm fatalities in Wisconsin are suicides; and suicides still constitute more than half of the firearm fatalities in the nation," according to Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH, Director of the Firearm Injury Center and Chairman of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College. "One of the functions of the Center is to dispel the myths that surround firearm injuries in the public mind," Dr. Hargarten said.

The researchers compared 22 firearm fatalities in five rural Wisconsin counties with 197 firearm fatalities in three urban Wisconsin populations. They found the suicide rates per 100,000 population were relatively similar in rural (16 per 100,000) and urban (13.5 per 100,000) areas. There was, however, a vast difference in how these similar suicide rates compared to the total number of firearm fatalities in each area.

In rural areas, suicide accounted for 91 percent of all firearm fatalities (20 of 22). In urban areas, suicide accounted for only 20 percent of all firearm fatalities (39 of 158).

Where the gun was identified, rifles and shotguns were used in 67 percent of rural homicides and suicides in this age group, but in only 10 percent of urban homicides and suicides. Handguns were involved in 90 percent of the urban fatalities, but in only 33 percent of the rural fatalities.

Dr. Hargarten, who has a Master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, believes that public health principles will offer realistic solutions to reducing firearm injuries and deaths. These include a comprehensive investigation of the environment, the victim, and the vehicle of injury, which is the firearm.

The Center is now linking information on the new findings with State Crime Laboratory data that includes the make and model of crime guns. Linkages are also being made with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to determine the point of first purchase of weapons used in suicides and homicides, and with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Criminal Information Bureau to determine the outcome of criminal charges brought in firearm homicide cases.

The Center houses the Firearm Injury Reporting System for southeastern Wisconsin, which has complete data sets on firearm fatalities in Milwaukee County for the years 1991 through 1996, and in seven additional counties for the years 1994 through 1996. Approximately half of the firearm fatalities in Wisconsin occur in the eight counties studied: Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee and Sheboygan.

Information on firearm injury data collection has been sought from the Center by US Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) for new legislation introduced in Congress supporting systems for collecting information about firearm injuries to children. This legislation, entitled The Children's Firearm Injury Surveillance Act of 1998, would provide $5 million annually to help state and community systems that collect data about fatal and non-fatal injuries to children under 21 years of age.

Attorney General Janet Reno has also asked Dr. Hargarten to participate in a focus group in Washington, DC, on July 30 to review the strengths and weakness of programs designed to reduce firearm violence.

Congress eliminated funding last year for seven state pilot programs designed to collect firearm injury information in cooperation with the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Injury Control and Prevention. The Medical College's program, which is funded through the Joyce Foundation, has the most comprehensive population-based data now available on these incidents.

MCW Health News presents up-to-date information on patient care and medical research by the physicians of the Medical College of Wisconsin.