Provision of Gun Locks to Increase Their Use in an at-Risk Sample

Approximately 48,300 people die by suicide yearly in the United States (U.S.) alone. Just over half of these deaths result from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, which is to be expected given that 9 out of 10 attempts involving a firearm result in death. Suicide research has demonstrated that prohibiting or reducing access to lethal means, or reducing the lethality of lethal means is am effective intervention for reducing suicide risk. The focus of studying lethal means in suicide research has recently emphasized firearms more strongly, and the literature has yielded strategies to increase the acceptability of lethal means counseling among at-risk individuals; however, strategies have yet to be empirically proven that effectively influence behavioral outcomes (i.e., increased engagement in firearm safety behaviors/thoughts). The present study sought to accomplish this. Nationally recruited at-risk, gun-owning community participants (n = 23) were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups: 1) standard intervention (i.e., suicide risk assessment, safety planning, and lethal means counseling) with a gun lock and instructional video for its proper use, and 2) standard intervention without a gun lock or instructional video. Public health research findings have provided compelling evidence that administering gun locks increases gun safety behaviors in average gun-owners. Accordingly, we hypothesized that among an at-risk sample of gun-owners, administering gun locks would interact with time to increase Engagement in Firearm Safety Behaviors, Intentions to Adhere to Clinician Recommendations, Recommending to Others to Adhere to Clinician Recommendations, and Acceptability of lethal means safety intervention. Hypotheses were tested using Linear Mixed Modeling and demonstrated no interaction effects for group x time. However, main effects for time on Intentions to Adhere to Clinician Recommendations and on Acceptability of Intervention were found and elaborated on in greater detail in our discussion.