Project Talent Study on Deaths from Firearms

Image

Firearm injury and death is a serious public health problem that can leave lasting harm on the health and safety of people in families and communities. There are many risks for firearm violence and questions remain about ways to prevent it. This study looked at firearm-related deaths by suicide among male participants of Project Talent.
 

What is this study about?

In the United States, more than 50 percent of firearm-related deaths are from suicide. Suicide is also a leading cause of death, and more than 50 percent of deaths from suicide are by firearm. Suicide is caused by several factors working together over time. We wanted to learn what factors increase a person’s risk of dying from suicide by firearm.

We focused on firearm-related deaths from suicide because they are highly preventable. We also looked only at deaths among men in Project Talent, as over 85 percent of deaths from suicide by firearm occur in men.
 

Why does this matter?

Understanding why some people have greater risk for dying from firearm-related injuries—particularly suicide—can help inform gun safety education and practices for protecting gun-owners and others from injury and death.
 

What did we do?

First, we linked Project Talent participants who died in the years 1979–2018 to the National Death Index, a data set that includes death record information for all U.S. citizens and persons who died in the U.S. since 1979. We looked at the cause of death. We were then able to compare three groups of Project Talent participants: those who died from suicide by firearm, and those who died from suicide by another means, and those who were still living.

Then, we then looked at the relationship between firearm-related suicide and two factors: social mobility between high school and early adulthood, and exposure to and interest in firearms during high school. For this study, we defined social mobility as the difference between a person’s social and economic status in high school—which was based on parents’ education, occupations, and household items—and their social and economic status at age 29. We created a measure of firearm exposure and interest using information from the interest and activity scales in the 1960 Project Talent survey, including knowledge about firearms and interest in joining the military or police force.
 

What did we learn?

Upward social mobility—that is, an improvement in one’s social and economic status—was linked to lower risk for death from suicide from age 35 to 70. In contrast, interest in firearm-related careers, like those found in the military or police force, was linked to a higher risk for death from suicide by firearm compared with others. However, participants who had knowledge about firearms in high school did not increase risk for death from suicide by firearm compared with others. Combined, these results highlight the importance of access to education and career opportunities, and the need for more prevention training and programs for first responders, as ways to reduce the number of deaths from suicide by firearm.
 

What's next?

This study focused on deaths among men in Project Talent. Women may have very different risk factors than men. Future directions might include looking at the different risks for death by firearm among women to improve prevention efforts.