Enlarge / Close-up of a shotgun. (credit: Big Swede Guy)

BOSTON—Because both criminal violence and gun rights have become contentious political topics, research on the health and safety aspects of gun ownership in the US is barely funded. In fact, many have questioned whether it should be studied at all. But Northeastern University’s Matthew Miller used a talk at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to argue that there’s an area where the data shows a clear link between gun access and public health and that this topic reveals some hints as to how to better manage safety.

The issue in focus is suicide.

While the focus on gun safety has been in terms of violent crimes, suicide is actually a larger problem. In 2015, it was the 10th leading cause of death, and half of the suicides occurred through the use of firearms. That’s roughly 22,000 of them—4,000 more than were killed in all forms of homicide. This large difference has held steady for several decades.