Evaluating risk of suicide and limiting youth access to firearms

The biggest takeaways from the session “Suicide and Gun Violence: What We Know, What We Can Do” presented at the 2023 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition by Eric J. Sigel, MD, FAAP.

The major take home points are first to understand that suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 through 24, and the leading mechanism of death is by firearms. 46% of youth who do die by suicide die by firearms and almost all the time, 85% of the time, youth find a firearm from their parents home, or I should say use a firearm from their parents home. What we really focus on is decreasing the accessibility of a firearm for youth, whether they're in suicidal crisis, or even just generally who aren't exhibiting any issues.