From Crisis to Action: Public Health Recommendations for Firearm Suicide Prevention — The Center for Gun Violence Solutions & The Center for Suicide Prevention, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2025)
This report presents a public-health framework for reducing firearm suicide, recommending evidence-based interventions at the individual, family, community, and policy levels to reduce access to lethal means during periods of crisis.
1. Firearm Suicide Requires a Multi-Level Public Health Response
2. Individual-Level Solutions Reduce Access During Crises
3. Family and Community Members Can Help Prevent Suicide
4. Public Policies Can Reduce Firearm Suicide
⭐ Star Facts
- In 2023, about 27,300 people died by firearm suicide—about one death every 19 minutes.
- Over the past five years, more than half of all suicides involved a firearm.
- Firearm suicide attempts have a 90% fatality rate.
- People with firearm access have 3.2 times the risk of suicide.
- 90% of people who survive a suicide attempt do not later die by suicide.
- Research estimates one suicide is prevented for about every 20 ERPOs issued.
- An estimated 4.6 million minors live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm.