Teenage years can be full of angst and things that, as adults, we would laugh off assume life and death significance, literally. Between 1974 and 2001 65,594 teenagers committed suicide in the USA. The method of choice for 62% of them was a gun. When it comes to suicide, guns are a real problem because they are an extremely fast and efficient way of killing yourself. Most methods take more effort and more time, time when you have the opportunity to reconsider your actions, time for someone to intervene and save your life.

If a teenager is comtemplating suicide then where do they turn for assistance? Research in Queensland, Australia by Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention has shown that teenagers will not seek professional help and that teenagers finding themselves in this position turn to their peers for support and advice. This points to a need for this usually taboo subject to be raised in fora where teenagers can be taught the rudimentaries of supporting one of their friends who finds themselves in this situation.

There is a common, and quite understandable, misconception that people who commit suicide want to die. In many instances this is simply not the case, it is just that they see this as the only option available to them. Teenagers in this category can be helped through counselling if there is an opportunity to do so. Guns often deny us this opportunity. If a teenager is contemplating suicide then easy access to a firearm in the home facilitates and sometimes even accelerates their progress down this tragic path. In recognition of this a number of states have introduced Child Access Protection (CAP) legislation that requires safe storage of firearms within the home. Obviously when guns are unavailable some teenagers will choose another method however analysis of the data shows an approximately 8% reduction in teenage suicides in states where this legislation is in force. This represents 256 teenage lives per annum that are saved by the CAP legislation.

Suicides are often impulsive acts which is what makes an available gun in the house a dangerous thing. Accordingly restricting access to purchase firearms by teenagers did not affect the suicide rates because this did not involve impulsiveness and those who were sufficiently goal focused on suicide who would have gone and purchased a gun for the purpose simply chose another means.

Read about the Australian Research here.
Read about the CAP research here.