title: Firearm availability and suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm deaths among women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the United States, more than 45,000 women died from gun violence over the last decade.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether measures of firearm availability are related to rates of suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm deaths among women in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pooled cross-sectional time series data on suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm deaths (1988-1997) were used to estimate the association between the rate of violent death among women and four proxies of firearm availability. Two proxies came from survey reports of household firearm ownership rates; two were derived from mortality statistics.
  
  
  METHODS
  United States, 1988-1997.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The increased rate of suicide and homicide in states with high gun levels was accounted for primarily by significantly elevated firearm suicide and firearm homicide rates. Unintentional firearm death rates were also increased in states with more guns. At the regional level, qualitatively similar results were obtained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Between 1988 and 1997, the suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm death rates among women were disproportionately higher in states where guns were more prevalent. The elevated rates of violent death in states with more guns was not entirely explained by a state's poverty or urbanization and was driven primarily by lethal firearm violence, not by lethal nonfirearm violence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Boston, MA 02115, USA. mmiller@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Azrael
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hemenway
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000401:mortality*