ICYMI: The Trevor Project, With Help From Everytown For Gun Safety, Releases Data on the Relationship Between Firearms, Mass Shootings and Suicide Risk Among LGBTQIA+ Youth 

NEW YORK — Today, The Trevor Project, in collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety, released new data on the relationship between firearms, mass shootings, and suicide risk among LGBTQIA+ youth. Key findings from the report include:

• The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People found that 39% of all LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. 

• Overall, 40% of LGBTQ+ young people reported that there was a firearm in their home. The majority (92%) of those with a firearm in the home reported that it was not theirs. Additionally, of those who reported the presence of a firearm in their home, 63% reported that the firearm was kept in a locked place, 22% reported that it was not kept in a locked place, and 15% reported that they did not know whether it was kept in a locked place.

• LGBTQ+ young people living in the South reported the highest rates of having a firearm in their home (48%).

• LGBTQ+ young people who reported the presence of a firearm in their home reported higher rates of having seriously considered suicide in the past year (43%), compared to their LGBTQ+ peers who did not report a firearm in their home (37%).

• Transgender, nonbinary, and gender-questioning young people reported higher rates of being impacted or knowing someone impacted by a mass shooting (22%), compared to their cisgender LGBQ+ peers (19%).

• LGBTQ+ young people who reported being impacted or knowing someone impacted by a mass shooting reported higher rates of having seriously considered suicide in the past year (45%).

“Behind every data point in this report, there is a real person whose life was put at risk because they were simply trying to live as their most authentic selves. We can’t accept this. It is well documented that putting time and space between a person in crisis and a firearm can reduce suicidal risk and save lives,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, Senior Director of Research at Everytown for Gun Safety. “If we as a society want to address this glaring public health crisis, we have to start with the role that guns play in queer youth suicides. We are thankful to The Trevor Project for their pathbreaking survey on firearms and suicide risk among LGBTQ+ young people, a topic of great urgency and huge data gaps.”

More from The Trevor Project:

The 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention provides several recommendations for reducing risk of firearm suicide related to access, including storing firearms separately from ammunition in a locked and safe location, providing information about temporary out-of-home storage of firearms, and implementing extreme risk protection orders , which allow for firearms to be temporarily removed from the home of someone at high risk of attempting suicide (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024). 

For young people who died by suicide using a firearm, over 40% used one that belonged to a family member, suggesting that different policy approaches may need to be employed for legal minors, many of whom live in homes with firearms that they can easily access (Simonettiet al., 2015).

Firearms may play another role in suicide risk among LGBTQ+ young people beyond individual access to lethal means. The vast majority (87%) of LGBTQ+ young people reported being worried either sometimes or a lot about a mass shooting happening in their community. These worries may be rooted in rising amounts of protests, threats, and violence directed at LGBTQ+ community events like drag shows, or other visible

displays of inclusivity at places such as schools (Margolin & Grant, 2023; Martiny & Lawrence, 2023). Our findings are consistent with prior literature which show adverse mental health outcomes among those exposed to mass shootings (Lowe & Galea, 2017), although our data also suggest that worrying about these shootings is similarly associated with heightened suicide risk.

While this analysis is a step forward, there remain large gaps in research on the use of firearms in suicide attempts among LGBTQ+ young people. The lack of systematic data collection efforts on sexual orientation and gender identity in the event of a violent death means that we often have little to no information about those LGBTQ+ young people who die by suicide. 
To speak with an expert at Everytown about our research on the relationship between firearms, mass shootings, and suicide risk among LGBTQIA+ people and disarming hate, do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected].