Guns and the threat of lead poisoning
The United States has twice as many firearms as we have citizens, and we are the third-most populated country in the world.
Enter any room with three or more people, and one of you likely owns a gun. This used to be a startling disclosure. In the 1900s firearms were not ubiquitous, and the National Rifle Association was an organization for hunting safety.
Now, suicide by firearm alone accounts for six out of every 10 firearm deaths. And while much attention has been paid to firearms themselves, new research indicates a startling discovery: Lead exposure, long linked to homicides, plays a role.
We’ve seen the evidence clearly indicate time and again that the more firearms there are in the community, the more deaths.
And while homicides and mass shootings gain a great degree of attention, suicides are the iceberg beneath the water: In 2021 almost 60% of all gun deaths were suicides.
Suicide has many causes, such as mental health or substance use, but it’s also an impulsive act. Completed deaths are often dictated by how permanent the method is, and guns are very permanent. To most of us in the injury prevention field, this is as settled a science as climate change.
So then how does lead fit into this established relationship?
Lead has a long history in the United States. It was in our gasoline; it was in our paint; it’s still in our jet fuel. Most of the time we don’t expect to find it when we do.
For example, firearm-related pediatric lead exposure, from lead ammunition and primers, is one of the greatest predictors of child blood lead levels in Massachusetts.
Lead is a very heavy and sticky metal and transfers between objects easily, so if someone is exposed at a range they could bring it with them to the grocery, or to day care. This is a novel exposure, analogous to secondhand smoke, and means that children living in communities where there is a high density of firearm users are far more at risk, even if their families don’t own firearms themselves.
Indeed, while guns are as American as apple pie, so too is lead.
Lead is a potent environmental neurotoxicant. Any amount is linked to catastrophic mental and physical health outcomes, such as all-cause death, cognitive and social impairments.
And it’s cumulative. That means an exposure, at any point in your life, will stay in your body and impact your functioning forever. Occasionally, it’s associated with the types of mental illness that occur alongside suicidal ideation, such as depression or anxiety.
Crucially, it inhibits impulse control. This makes it harder to think through critical decisions, such as those that precede death by suicide.
The hazards of lead exposure become more upsetting when we consider firearms as both a prominent exposure source as well as an extremely lethal means of death by suicide.
Considering these facts, what can be done? A balance must be struck between reducing the imminent risks through access to lethal means while adjusting for long-term complications from lead exposure.
We need to normalize firearm storage and safekeeping for ourselves, friends and relatives. Firearms should be stored, locked and unloaded, as a mental health crisis can occur with no advance warning. When someone does experience a crisis, friends and relatives should offer to take their firearms, including when a parent feels their child is at risk.
This is one of the best types of intervention. It’s free, it works, and it doesn’t require any further policy or legislation. Having firearm-owning communities adopt this approach could go far in preventing adult firearm suicides.
We must also attend to the risks of firearm-related lead exposure. Limiting the use of leadbased ammunition or beginning a voluntary phase-out could reduce rates. We also need better data systems to inform interventions, so that individuals can continue their hobby without putting their communities at risk.
The specter of firearm suicide and lead exposure has loomed large over our country for years.
But, as with many matters of great public health concern, it need not be this way. We can make a choice for it to be different. If not for us, then for our children.