A Public Health Approach to Gun Safety
Healthy Acadia is dedicated to working with community members and partners to build safe, healthy, vibrant communities across the region, and to help all people thrive and reach their potential. We are deeply concerned about gun violence as a key threat to the safety, health, and well-being of our communities. We support a public health approach to gun safety, to uphold Maine’s traditions of safe and appropriate gun use, such as hunting, and to ensure safety and well-being for all Mainers.
As we witnessed in Lewiston on October 25, 2023, our communities in Maine are not immune to the tragic, horrific mass shootings that have devastated communities across the United States. Our hearts go out to the victims of the Lewiston shooting - and of all shootings, their families and loved ones, law enforcement and other first responders, and everyone who grapples with trauma, grief, fear, anger, and more in the wake of these shootings. We know that we can and must do more to protect our communities from the threat and devastation that shootings like these cause.
Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death, as well as disability and injury. More than 42,000 people in the U.S. die from gun violence on average each year, and tens of thousands more are injured.[1] The U.S. has among the highest gun death rates in the world for all ages, and in particular for children. It is the leading cause of death for children (1-17) in the United States.[2] Guns are the leading method of suicide in the U.S., causing more than half of all suicide deaths.[3] In Maine, while our homicide rate has historically been below the national average, we know that this can change abruptly, as we witnessed in Lewiston. In addition, our rate of suicides and suicide attempts using firearms is much higher - the rate of death from a gun suicide is 33% higher in Maine than in the U.S. as a whole.[4] Based on a recent state report, 89% of Maine’s gun deaths in 2021 were suicides.[5]
The rates of gun suicide are particularly alarming, as suicide attempts by gunfire result in death 85% of the time, in comparison with just 3% for the leading method of attempted suicide, drug overdose.[6] Nearly 90% of people who survive an attempted suicide do not go on to die by suicide, and so the lethality of suicide attempts by firearms is particularly devastating, destroying the chance for a person to recover.[7] Each of these events not only impacts the victim and their immediate family but the broader community as well. Fear, anxiety, grief, and uncertainty ripple through the victim’s family and neighborhood in ever-widening circles as a stone thrown in a lake.
Healthy Acadia stands in strong support of gun violence prevention to reduce the devastation caused by firearms as a critical part of ensuring safety, health, and well-being for all people across our communities. We are committed to working with our team and partners to:
Promote gun safety education, so that Mainers using guns appropriately can do so safely, without harm to themselves or others;
Promote safe gun storage, so that individuals who should not have access to guns, especially children, will not accidentally obtain access;
Support continued advocacy to ensure that school and community-based activities, trainings, drills, and education related to shootings follow evidence-based and best practices, promoting resilience and health, and minimizing trauma.
Support efforts at the state level to continue to collect data on gun-related deaths and injuries in order to understand the causes and evaluate interventions;
Identify risk factors associated with gun violence, as well as resilience/protective factors that help prevent gun violence (e.g. access to mental health services, youth resilience programs, etc.);
Continue to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions and policies to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors;
Support common-sense policies regarding access to guns that support the safety and well-being of all Mainers;
And more, guided by community needs and priorities.
We are committed to these and other actions to support a thoughtful public health approach to gun safety, to continue to support Maine’s traditions of safe gun use, and to ensure health and safety for all Mainers. We are committed to building communities in which all people can grow and thrive, have ready access to resources that support the challenges they face, and reach their full potential.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal/index.html; https://www.bradyunited.org/key-statistics
[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/;
[4] https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/08/gun-suicides-in-maine-far-outpace-u-s-rate/