Selbstmorde im Zusammenhang mit Feuerwaffen, die bei älteren Frauen in den USA zunehmen. Schusswaffen sind die führende Selbstmordmethode unter den Senioren ab 65 Jahren, insbesondere bei Männern, sagen Forscher. Tatsächlich töten sich hochrangige Männer 13 -mal häufiger mit einer Waffe als ältere Frauen.

Senior women are becoming more likely to use a gun to end their lives, a new study says.

Firearms are the leading method of suicide among seniors 65 and older, especially men, researchers say. In fact, senior men are 13 times more likely to kill themselves with a gun than senior women.

But suicides by gun are increasing rapidly among older women, according to research published Aug. 25 in JAMA Network Open.

Guns were involved in nearly 40% of suicides among senior women in 2023, up from about 35% in 2014, researchers report.

We found alarmingly high proportions of firearm suicides to all suicides among both older women and older men, and the trend among older women outpaced that of older men,” lead researcher Ziming Xuan said in a news release. He’s a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Women represent nearly half of all new gun owners in the United States, and suicide prevention strategies will need to adapt, researchers said.

For the study, researchers analyzed suicide data for seniors 65 and older from 2014 through 2023 kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2837963](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2837963)

Our friend’s husband just killed himself with a gun. He was retired and struggling with depression. It has completely eaten his wife up.

We need to do more to provide support and therapy, and to encourage people to remove guns from their life when they are struggling. It makes me sad that the debates are always about “my rights” and not about being responsible and safe around guns, and helping protect those around us.