Law enforcement officers in the United States have a high rate of firearm ownership and often do not practice secure firearm storage, which potentially increase their risk for suicide, according to a latest study.
The study by Rutgers University indicate that a significant 70.5 percent of law enforcement officers report owning firearms. Handguns were the most common type of firearms owned (79.7 percent), followed by shotguns (61.1 percent) and rifles (57.5 percent). Interestingly, 78.9 percent reported owning more than one type of firearm.
SECURE STORAGE
One concerning aspect revealed by the study is the low engagement of law enforcement officers in secure firearm storage practices. The most commonly used secure storage methods were gun safes (39.8 percent), followed by locking devices like trigger or cable locks (31.2 percent). Notably, 57.6 percent of the surveyed officers reported lifetime thoughts of suicide, and those who had such thoughts were more likely to own firearms.
Allison Bond, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate with the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers, and the first author of the study, highlighted the significance of these findings, saying, “We found that not only are they experiencing high rates of suicidal thoughts, but those who have had suicidal thoughts are more likely to own firearms, and are often not engaging in secure storage. This is concerning because access to a firearm increases the risk for several types of firearm-related injuries and death, including suicide; and this risk is even higher when a firearm is not stored securely. We need to work with law enforcement officers to determine ways to increase secure storage.”
Past research has consistently shown that law enforcement officers experience higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours compared to the general population, with a substantial percentage of their suicide deaths involving firearms.
ACCESS
Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and an associate professor at Rutgers School of Public Health, who served as the senior author of the study, emphasized the importance of secure storage: “If law enforcement officers experiencing suicidal thoughts are more likely to have quick access to an unsecured firearm, there is a greater risk that, in their worst moment, they will reach for and use by far the most lethal method for suicide. We do not always know when an officer is suffering with suicidal thoughts, so we need to work with that community to foster a general tendency to store firearms securely by default so that, if they one day find themselves thinking about suicide, it will be more difficult for them to make a deadly decision in response to those thoughts.