New C.D.C. data show that firearms remain the leading means of suicide for both men and women.
Women are increasingly using guns to die by suicide in the United States, challenging long-held assumptions that they will usually resort to less lethal means, according to data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gun-related suicide is most often associated with men, largely because men are more likely than women to purchase guns and to die by suicide. But in 2020, gun-related suicides surpassed poisoning and suffocation for the first time among women, and have continued to rise since then.
Suicide attempts with guns are far more lethal than those by other means, and firearm injuries now account for more than half of all suicide deaths.
The findings, drawn from federal health data, showed that in 2022, 20 out of every million women used a gun to die by suicide, up from 14 women in 2002. This marks a 43 percent increase. The report also found that suicide rates have risen among women over the past two decades.
“If we rely on who we think a gun owner is going to look like or how they’re going to act or vote or whatever, then we’re going to miss a lot of women who are dying,” said Rosie Bauder, a clinical assistant professor at Ohio State University who is studying the attitudes and behaviors of women gun owners.
Experts say there is not a single reason for the shift in how women are dying by suicide, but noted that easy access to guns is a contributing factor.