As lawmakers and mental health advocates wrestle with how to stop the avalanche of suicides by firearm in this country, some are looking to a novel idea at work in a handful of states: Register yourself as a suicide risk so you can’t buy a gun on a whim.
Mass shootings get more attention, but the smaller-scale tragedy of gun suicide represents a majority of firearm deaths in most states. In the United States, suicides make up 57% of all gun deaths, or about 117,000 out of 206,000 firearm deaths in the past five years, according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data analyzed by Stateline.
Many states are grappling with new ways to prevent gun suicide. It’s a goal of many state laws focused on gun violence in general, including storage, waiting periods and red flag laws aimed at removing guns from those who might be a danger either to themselves or others.
