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Honor ideology and private firearm ownership in US active-duty soldiers

Objectives

This study investigated whether honor ideology, or a belief that one’s reputation must be defended at all costs, is related to firearms ownership in soldiers.

Methods

N=301 active-duty soldiers completed online self-report measures in this cross-sectional study.

Results

Honor ideology was higher in soldiers who privately own a firearm compared with those who do not currently own and do not plan to after military separation. Higher honor ideology was correlated with a disbelief that private firearms ownership is related to soldier suicide risk. Levels of honor ideology were equal in soldiers who own a private firearm for protection versus other reasons (eg, hunting, maintaining a collection).

Conclusions

Honor ideology may be related to suicide risk through increased likelihood of owning a private firearm and disbelief in private firearm ownership being related to one’s own suicide risk in soldiers. Honor ideology could be relevant to consider when means safety initiatives are developed for active-duty military personnel.

Association of veteran suicide risk with state-level firearm ownership rates and firearm laws in the USA

Background

Veterans have higher suicide rates than matched non-veterans, with firearm suicides being especially prevalent among veterans. We examined whether state firearm laws and state firearm ownership rates are important risk factors for suicide among veterans.

Methods

US veteran’s and demographically matched non-veteran’s suicide rates, 2002–2019, are modelled at the state level as a function of veteran status, lethal means, state firearm law restrictiveness, household firearm ownership rates and other covariates.

Results

Marginal effects on expected suicide rates per 100 000 population were contrasted by setting household firearm ownership to its 75th versus 25th percentile values of 52.3% and 35.3%. Ownership was positively associated with suicide rates for both veterans (4.35; 95% credible interval (CrI): 1.90, 7.14) and matched non-veterans (3.31; 95% CrI: 1.11, 5.77). This association was due to ownership’s strong positive association with firearms suicide, despite a weak negative association with non-firearm suicide. An IQR difference in firearm laws corresponding to three additional restrictive laws was negatively associated with suicide rates for both veterans (–2.49; 95% CrI: –4.64 to –0.21) and matched non-veterans (–3.19; 95% CrI: –5.22 to –1.16). Again, these differences were primarily due to associations with firearm suicide rates. Few differences between veterans and matched non-veterans were found in the associations of state firearm characteristics with suicide rates.

Discussion

Veterans’ and matched non-veterans’ suicide risk, and specifically their firearm suicide risk, was strongly associated with state firearm characteristics.

Conclusions

These results suggest that changes to state firearm policies might be an effective primary prevention strategy for reducing suicide rates among veterans and non-veterans.