How do active duty army personnel view the relationships between firearms and suicide? The role of sociopsychological factors, firearm ownership status, and lifetime history of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Abstract

Background: Firearms are the primary method by which US military personnel die by suicide, and those at highest risk tend to store firearms unsafely. Promoting secure firearm storage practices is a major component of the Department of Defense's suicide prevention strategy, but perceptions about firearms being associated with suicide risk may impact such efforts.

Purpose: This study examined perceptions that (1) firearm ownership and (2) storage practices are associated with suicide risk and whether key sociopsychological factors (e.g., entrapment, threat perceptions, honor ideology) were associated with these beliefs in a sample of Active Duty (AD) enlisted Army personnel. We then examined if associations varied as a function of firearm ownership or a lifetime history of suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors (STBs).

Methods: Survey data about sociopsychological factors and ownership-suicide risk beliefs and storage-suicide risk beliefs were collected from 399 AD Army personnel. Multiple regression and multigroup path analyses were used.

Results: Greater intolerance of uncertainty and entrapment, and weaker honor ideology, were associated with greater ownership-suicide risk beliefs, whereas being a parent of a minor child was linked with weaker ownership-suicide risk beliefs. None of the variables examined were associated with storage-suicide risk beliefs. Participants with a lifetime history of STBs who had higher threat perceptions endorsed weaker ownership-suicide risk beliefs.

Conclusions: AD Army personnel may tend to believe that firearm ownership and storage practices are largely unrelated to suicide risk. More tailored messaging and suicide-gun violence prevention efforts are likely needed. Findings have important implications for military suicide prevention efforts.