US study finds correlation between youth suicide, household gun ownership
Professor Michael Siegel of Boston University, co-author of a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on January 17, declared household gun ownership rates within the United States to be "the strongest single predictor of a state's youth suicide rate". Wikinews interviewed Siegel to learn more.
Siegel and colleagues including predoctoral fellow Anita Knopov, the lead author, compared data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2004, when the body last surveyed US gun owners, to corresponding information on suicides by 10–19 year olds from 2005 through 2015. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System was used to find data on such variables as education, depression, and suicidal planning and ideation.
The study reports "For each 10 pe...