Duke Health
A Connecticut law enacted in
1999 to allow police to temporarily remove guns from potentially violent or
suicidal people likely prevented dozens of suicides, according to a study by
researchers at Duke and Yale universities and the University of Connecticut.
In their review of 762
gun-removal cases, the authors calculate that for every 10 to 20 instances of
temporary gun seizures, one suicide was prevented.
The findings come as eight other
states are exploring similar measures. Voters in Washington state passed a
nearly identical law in the most recent election, and it will go into effect
next month.
"Ten to 20 gun removals to save one life -- is that high or is that low?" said lead author Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D., professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. "That may be for the policy makers to decide. But we'd like to put this information in the hands of the policy makers so they know what's hanging in the balance of risk and rights when it comes to preventing gun violence."
In the study, available online
and forthcoming in the journal Law and Contemporary Problems,
researchers used court records, interviews, public health files, vital records
and other sources to track what happened in the lives of people subject to
temporary gun removal. The researchers applied U.S. population-level data on
suicides, suicide attempts and methods used to estimate how many deaths were
potentially averted.
The Connecticut law was drafted
after a 1998 mass shooting at offices for the state lottery. The bill allows
officials to remove firearms for up to a year from any person a court finds at
high-risk of violence or self-harm. Since then, Indiana and California have
enacted similar risk-based gun removal laws, which the researchers are also
tracking.
The policy could help identify
people who may be temporarily at increased risk of violence but do not
necessarily have a history of violence, involuntary commitment, or a criminal
record that would raise flags through point-of-sale background checks, Swanson
said.
"It's pretty easy to get a
gun these days without going through a background check," Swanson said.
"That's why this kind of risk-based temporary gun removal could be
important. It doesn't depend on just stopping someone from buying a new gun. If
they already have 10 at home, that might not do much good."
The Connecticut measure was
driven by concerns about distraught or disgruntled people committing violence
against others, such as in a mass shooting, Swanson said. But the law is more
often used by family members and law enforcement troubled by people who might
harm themselves.
Police must obtain a civil warrant from a judge with probable
cause that the person is at risk of harming themselves or others. A civil court
hearing must be held within two weeks to decide whether to return the guns to
the owner, or hold the guns for up to a year.
Of the 762 instances of
temporary gun seizures, 95 percent of the people were male with an average age
of 47. An average of seven firearms were sequestered per case. Most of the
people were not involved in the criminal justice system; 88 percent had no
arrests leading to a criminal conviction in the year before or the year after
their firearms were temporarily removed, according to the study.
Just 12 percent of the people
whose guns were temporarily removed were already receiving public mental health
treatment in the year before the guns were seized.
A larger proportion (29
percent) were receiving mental health treatment through the state's public
system in the year that followed their guns being seized, suggesting some
subjects began receiving mental health care as an indirect result of temporary
gun removal.
Among the 762 interventions, 21
of the people involved ended up committing suicide -- a proportion 40 times
higher than suicide rate among the general population. Fifteen people used
methods other than firearms to kill themselves. Six people used guns to kill
themselves. All of the gun-related suicides occurred after the person was once
again eligible to buy a gun or reclaim weapons that had been held by
authorities.
Although 90 percent of suicide
attempts are survived, the results are almost always fatal for those who use
firearms, Swanson said.
"What if the guns had not
been taken away, how many more people would have died?" he said. "We
don't know that for sure. But using information that we have from other studies
about the means used in suicide in the U.S. population, and the connections
between gun ownership and suicide, we can estimate that the gun-removal policy
in Connecticut did save many lives. In effect, it offered a second chance at
life for people in deep despair, and even a path to recovery when they got help
as a result."
The study data comprises
quantitative and qualitative information from court records, interviews, public
health files, vital records and other sources, and has limitations, Swanson
said.
Researchers relied on national and state data on suicide rates, causes of
suicide death, gun ownership and rates of known suicide attempts to estimate
the number of guns that need to be seized to prevent one suicide.
The findings
are also based solely on one state; Swanson and other researchers in the field
are tracking similar laws in other states to gain additional insights, he said.
