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Tait, Gordon and Belinda Carpenter. 2010 ‘Rates, Trends and Effects of Firearm Legislation.’ Firearm Suicide in Queensland; 46 (1), pp. 90-93. Brisbane: Journal of Sociology. 1 March

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Rates, trends and effects of firearm legislation

The results from this study indicate that the percentage of firearms suicides in Queensland continues to fall (see Appendix, Table 1). From the high of 27 percent in the period ending in 1995, after the 1996 legislation placing significant restrictions upon gun ownership, the level of firearm suicide has fallen to 8.5 percent by 2004. There seems little doubt that gun control legislation has played a part in this reduction, although a parallel reduction in the social acceptability of firearms following the Port Arthur massacre may also have contributed.

The central question here is: has the reduction from 27 percent in 1995 (Baume et al., 1998), to the 8.5 percent in this study in 2004, been accompanied by a compensating increase in other methods of suicide?

As firearm suicides have declined, there has not been a direct substitution by other methods of suicide.

The majority of research into this issue not only suggests that gun legislation significantly reduces firearm suicide, but also that potential firearm suicides are not necessarily displaced into non-gun suicides.

ID: Q1949

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