Suicides make up 54.2% of gun deaths in New York State.

In New York, suicides account for 54.2% of gun deaths.

Gun deaths from suicide increased in 2014, making up a larger proportion of gun deaths in both New York State and the U.S.

While gun suicides were up, gun homicides were down, for both the state and the country. Suicides made up 54.2% of the New York gun deaths, and 63.6% of the nation’s gun deaths.

Nation’s Gun Death Rate Twice as High as New York’s

With the additional suicides, the state’s gun death rate rose slightly, from 4.39 to 4.43/100,000. The country’s gun death rate decreased slightly, from 10.63 to 10.54/100,000, but remains more than twice as high as New York’s rate.

Statewide there were 875 total gun deaths, and 33,599 gun deaths nationwide, in 2014.

Gun deaths Gun death rate
2013 2014  % Diff 2013 2014  % Diff
NYS 863 875 1.39% 4.39 4.43 0.91%
U.S. 33,636 33,599 -0.11% 10.63 10.54 -.85%
Suicides Homicides
2013 2014  % Diff 2013 2014  % Diff
NYS 465 474 1.94% 380 372 -2.11%
U.S. 2,1175 2,1334 0.75% 11,208 10,945 -2.35%

Safe Storage Law Would Prevent Suicides

“All evidence shows that a gun in the home increases the likelihood that someone in the home will die a violent death—from homicides, unintentional shootings, and especially, by suicide,” said Leah Gunn Barrett, NYAGV Executive Director. “It’s so important that we pass Nicholas’s Law in New York State so we can keep guns away from children, teens and others who shouldn’t have access to them,” she added.

Nicholas’s Law: The Child Access Prevention or Safe Weapon Storage Act, which passed the Assembly last June but was not taken up by the Senate, would require the  safe storage of guns not in the immediate possession of the owner. The law is named for 12-year-old Nicholas Naumkin of Wilton, NY, who was fatally shot by a friend who had found his father’s unlocked and loaded handgun.

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Read more about guns and suicide:
• Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides,  New York Times, 10/8/2015
• People Kill with Guns More Than Any Other Weapon, Scientific American, 7/1/13